V maintains a distinctively elegant gloom, The Horrors continuing to find intoxicating new shades within their gray moods. It’s an album that confirms them as one of the most consistently surprising, most artistically sophisticated, simply greatest rock bands working today.
There’s something really powerful and undeniable about V’s songs that suggests it could provide the most unlikely twist in an unlikely story: the Horrors actually becoming as big as the overheated hype announced they would a decade ago. Whether that happens or not, it’s a triumph.
The Horrors have never been afraid to push their sound to new and interesting places. So it comes as no surprise to find that V continues that trend by matching their anthemic side with a desire to “get nasty” and make something “quite unsettling”.
V isn’t a huge reinvention, more a subtle reboot, and a move which has worked out perfectly. The Horrors are hardly new to making brilliant albums - they did that with their previous three - but V is better than them all.
V could very well be the album that pushes The Horrors to the next echelon, something the group has already accomplished in its native U.K. with its last two albums breaking the top 10 charts. This is an unrealistic expectation Stateside, but V certainly has the chops to propel them up a level or two in the American public's consciousness.
Skying remains their best attempt at fusing psychedelia and pop music, but V comes really close with its reimagining of Tubeway Army, Soft Cell and Björk.
V feels bigger than its predecessors, but it still disturbs.
Arguably The Horrors’ best album yet. V, it would seem, is for Victory.
After 2014’s slightly aimless Luminous, the Horrors’ fifth album finds them recapturing the focus of their earlier triumphs
Overall, V feels like a consolidation of all of the strengths that The Horrors have built up over the last ten years, tightly bundled and perfectly accessible without sacrificing any of their artistic integrity.
While the band's fifth album sounds expectedly stadium-sized, bringing another pair of ears into the fold seems to have pushed the Horrors to make the biggest changes to their music since Primary Colours.
On V, the Horrors have got their mojo back. They sound lean, keen and mean but with songs to match the swagger. This is the album the band needed to make.
V combines expansive arena-rock sonics with a heavy dose of lush electronics. Indeed, the stern synths and metal-bashing percussion of Hologram sound like vintage Tubeway Army, while the robo-riffing thunder of Machine falls between Suede and the Sisters Of Mercy.
The most recent The Horrors' record, V, sees them incorporate a more synthpop / Alternative Dance element to their establish Neo-Psychedelia sound and it's an improvement over Luminous but with still some weaker production and tracks in general it fails to live up to Skying and Primary Colours.
Track Review
Hologram 6.5/10
Press Enter To Exit 7.5/10.
Machine 7/10
Ghost 6/10
Point of No Reply 7.5/10.
Weighed Down 6/10
Gathering 6.5/10
World Below 6.5/10
It's a Good Life 7/10
Something To ... read more
OUT OF MY COMFORT-ZONE - CHALLENGE
DAY 11
[Genre(s): Neo-Psychedelia, Post-Punk]
Welcome by the eleventh installment of the challenge! This time I had to review 'V' by The Horrors. If I'm honest, I really didn't expect to like this record, because I really don't like post-punk a genre. But this album really surprised me, it was really captivating, so much so that I was completely zoned out while listening.
This record has some of the best production in the genre, ever. It's incredibly ... read more
Decent enough, but disappointing regardless
Back in 2018, I listened to that auto-generated Spotify playlist "Daily Mix" (that's how it's called here in my country at least), to find new albums and bands, since by then, I was just barely starting. There, I found some of my favorite bands and albums, "The Queen Is Dead" or "Little Dark Age" for example, but in there, I also stumbled upon this album. "V" by The Horrors got my interest almost ... read more
Hologram - 95
Press Enter To Exit - 85
Machine - 100
Ghost - 70
Point of No Reply - 75
Weighed Down - 65
Gathering - 80
World Below - 75
It's a Good Life - 70
Something To Remember Me By - 40
1 | Hologram 6:04 | 98 |
2 | Press Enter to Exit 5:55 | 99 |
3 | Machine 5:16 | 97 |
4 | Ghost 5:37 | 92 |
5 | Point of No Reply 4:59 | 95 |
6 | Weighed Down 6:31 | 100 |
7 | Gathering 5:16 | 100 |
8 | World Below 3:20 | 98 |
9 | It's a Good Life 4:52 | 90 |
10 | Something to Remember Me By 6:40 | 95 |
#8 | / | Gigwise |
#9 | / | Clash |
#12 | / | NZ Herald |
#13 | / | Fopp |
#13 | / | Q Magazine |
#14 | / | State |
#14 | / | Under the Radar |
#15 | / | musicOMH |
#15 | / | The Guardian |
#18 | / | The A.V. Club |