Album Review: Editors - The Weight Of Your Love

There's a decidedly Depeche Mode feel (circa Violator, in particular Personal Jesus) to The Weight, the opening track to Editors' latest album, The Weight Of Your Love. Much in the same way that the title and opening track to their last album, In This Light And This Morning, was a dark and moody beast, The Weight has a beautiful heaviness to it, only this time it's a fuller, more solid creature with a definite rock backing replacing the decidedly electronic bent, with singer/guitarist Tom Smith's always impressive baritone continuing to bolster this tenebrosity.

The first cracks in this powerful façade appear four songs in, on What Is This Thing Called Love – the first of three ballads on the record. This isn't a bad track per se, but the fact that it is immediately followed by the other two ballads make this a weak point in the album. You can't help but feel that this tracklisting is flawed. Honesty could be even further enhanced by the removal of the out-of-place brass accompaniment which, thankfully, makes a limited appearance during the track. Formaldehyde, the most upbeat number on offer, does its best to recapture the feel the first three tracks set, yet something is lost, leaving the song and the remainder of the album to be best described as good, but not great.

The first Editors album since the departure of lead guitarist Chris Urbanowicz is, with all due respect, none the worse for his leaving. The depth of sound is intoxicating and comes close to swallowing you whole. “I promised myself I wouldn't talk about death/I know I'm getting boring,” laments Smith during the chorus of The Weight, yet this couldn't be further from the truth.