A four-on-the-floor beat with a wash of synths isn't exactly the expected way for a Horrors album to begin, but that's exactly how Mirror's Image kicks off Primary Colours, which is such a big departure from the band's debut, Strange House, that it's fitting it's on a different label. Though Strange House's final tracks suggested that the band was looking for ways to expand on its resurrection of freakbeat and garage rock, very little suggested that its next album would be the triple point where goth, post-punk, and shoegaze met. This time out, Faris Badwan sings more than he screams, Spider Webb's keyboards sparkle rather than stab, and the guitars bend and blur instead of slamming out power chords (Primary Colours' out-of-focus cover photo even upholds the rule that shoegaze-inspired albums have to have hazy artwork to match the sounds within). Even their attitude is completely different: rather than dismissing an ex by snarling "She was the new thing," Badwan sighs, "I know you're better off this way." Then again, the Horrors always seemed artier and more ambitious than a lot of garage rock-inspired bands, from their cartoon-goth look to collaborating with visionary director Chris Cunningham. Now, Cunningham acts as one of Primary Colours' co-producers, along with Portishead's Geoff Barrow; having masters of sophisticated spookiness like these in their corner helps the Horrors make such a drastic change to their sound convincing. While Strange House's sound was fun and distinctive -- and that campy glee is occasionally missed here -- it might have also been limiting, something that can't be said of the band's experiments with these songs. The album's epic lead single, Sea Within a Sea, is also its most stunning track, traveling through a motorik beat, taut keyboards, and massive guitar drones that suggest whale cries before it opens into a sparkling, arpeggiated coda.

1		Mirror's Image
2		Three Decades
3		Who Can Say
4		Do You Remember
5		New Ice Age
6		Scarlet Fields
7		I Only Think of You
8		I Can't Control Myself
9		Primary Colours
10		Sea Within a Sea

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