Editors – An End Has a Start (2007)

Editors didn't really bring anything new to the world when they released their debut album in the mid-00's. The sounds were really similar to Interpol and Editors does seem like the British answer to American Interpol. Still, being a fan of the musical style that is now called post-punk revival, I liked their music and developed an interest into their music. I think Interpol is superior to Editors when it comes to songwriting and even sounds. Editors sounds slightly more commercial and they have also taken some influences from another genre that was popular at the time, post-rock. There are huge guitar walls in these songs. This second album is even a bit more pop-oriented than the darker debut album, but there are some nice hit songs that work well on the dance floor. This type of well-produced and dark indie rock was really popular in the mid-00's and through these bands I discovered the joy of clubbing in the form of indie discos.



The album art in the cover is quite phenomenal. I really like the blurry sketchings of gasworks in the cover. It captures the mood of the music as well. Dark and industrial sounds that have been produced really well.

I'm a bit bored of this kind of music nowadays though. I guess this happens quite often that music that's about ten to twenty years old starts to sound old and outdated. Then again, after that period it usually comes back again, so I can expect a new retro boom into this kind of stuff in another ten years' time.

Like many other rock bands of the same era, Editors too made lots of music videos with the band playing live to show the cool stage performance they have. The reason was probably to promote for the live gigs. The title track An End Has a Start has this kind of music video, but there's something else in this video. A bunch of models in different coloured pantyhose are dancing strange kind of robotic dances to the music. It looks quite humorous, as I'm sure it was supposed to.

Like so many other albums, this one as well has the best songs in the first half of the album and the songs towards the end are not quite as interesting. Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors, An End Has a Start, The Weight of the World and Bones are all quite good songs and any of them could have been a hit song from this album. The only great song on the latter half is The Racing Rats, that is actually probably the best song on this album. When Anger Shows is also a song that gets stuck in your head easily, but for some reason it annoys me a little bit. The rest of the songs I can't even remember after having just listened through the album.

Editors was a part of one of the most defining musical genres of the mid-00's, but they weren't really that original and didn't bring much to the already quite active genre. They have some good songs and I do like their sound, but it has gotten a bit boring after ten years since their release. If you like bands like Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, White Lies, Bloc Party etc. and you haven't listened to Editors, I do encourage you to check them out, but it does look like their time is over now. Maybe they'll be back when the mid-00's come back in fashion.

Listen to the album on Spotify.