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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
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.
100
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.
90
‘V’ is The Horrors’ most cohesive record to date. Even though it doesn’t carry the same stylistic impact as ‘Primary Colours’ did in 2009 (c’mon, that was a massive leap), ‘V’ is the record that has finally given The Horrors a set identity.
90
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”.
90
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.
85
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.
80
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.
80
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.
80
Newly signed to Epworth’s label Wolf Tone, and following up ‘Luminous’ (an album they reckon “could have been better”) the band have responded by unleashing their ballsiest selves.
80
In their 11th year, they move out of whatever comfort zone they were in before and recapture some of their best traits.
80
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.
80
The Horrors’ alchemical sticky-fingered raid through the ’80s closet delivers some of the most thrilling, most substantial pop you’ll hear all year.
80
Five albums in and The Horrors have obviously found a new lease of life. This ‘V’ is for victorious.
80
After 2014’s slightly aimless Luminous, the Horrors’ fifth album finds them recapturing the focus of their earlier triumphs
75
The album is, on the whole, a sign of The Horrors‘ continuous evolution, and it does not disappoint.
71
The band’s basic formula—simple, languid melodies, traditional verse-chorus structures interrupted by guitar and synth wig-outs—hasn’t changed, but the surfaces are grittier, the drums smack harder, and the vocals sit louder in the mix.
40
You get the sense that The Horrors still have greatness in them (see Tom Furse’s experimental solo album and Badwan’s work in Cat’s Eyes) but it’s not here.
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
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
What a lovely album. I often prejudge works based upon covers and interviews. The group’s name is The Horrors. The cover looks like something out of a bad sci-fi horror movie, where several people are melting / fused into one living abomination organism. The artist’s page on Spotify shows a lead singer with hair that would make Robert Smith say, “Dude, get a comb.” I expected thrash metal with unintelligible lyrics, discordant chords, and a plethora of howls and ... read more
Some of these songs manage to genuinely be very, very good, with the slick, retro-leaning, psychedelic indie rock production holding them up. Too often, though, the shiny production becomes too machinistic, too calculated, leaving me feeling hollow and unsatisfied. Almost great but let down by an uneven presence of genuine personality or emotion.
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Year End Lists
| #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 |
More Lists
Track List
- Hologram
- Press Enter To Exit
- Machine
- Ghost
- Point of No Reply
- Weighed Down
- Gathering
- World Below
- It's a Good Life
- Something To Remember Me By
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Added on: June 28, 2017