Editors: An End Has A Start - CD - Kitchenware Records KWCD37 Amazon.co.uk Editors were not the only band suckling on Joy Division?s bleak teat in 2005 when they released their debut The Back Room, and they never initially seemed the ones most likely to succeed either. They were like a pencil sketch of gothic depression, too tidy, too clean, too neatly attired to attain any lasting emotional credibility. But there was just one problem with that cursory diagnosis; the incendiary skinny-ribbed barrage of short, sharp, repetitive and achingly insistent singles, titled with an absolute maximum of two syllables as if to ram that point home. There was zero puppy fat on Editors? bones, but what they did carry was toned and worked to perfection. But even considering that discipline, the competent grandeur of its follow up, An End Has a Start, takes you aback. Awash with constellation-scraping omnipresence, opening track "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors" seems all around you at once, building, lifting and frankly doing a better impression of late 80s U2-sized epic than Coldplay mustered on X&Y. The album rebounds between that sense of rounded, accessible awe and the more industrious pounding in the engine room that they perfected on their debut, the latter particularly demonstrable on the title track and a truly hammering "Escape the Nest". Tom Smith?s rudimentary lyrics and forced baritone may lack some of the poetic depth that the music craves, but like their overall style he directs what he does possess with admirable precision. -- James Berry Review Back with their second album, Editors have kept to what they do best - gloomy, guitar-laden, electro-infused indie music. Not a bad idea either, An End Has A Start picks up the best of The Back Room and moves it on. The slightly depressing and morose lyrics are still here, so are the ever-present guitar stylings, and the fast, pounding, pace. But it's bigger, slicker, more ambitious and better. Take album opener ''Smokers At The Hospital Door''. This is a big song building from a drum beat to a swelling choir-assisted chorus giving it a full lush sound. It might have worked better towards the end of the record, but as a statement of intent, it's bang on. This is a band aiming for a big sound, a big album, and a BIG impact. It's not all doom and gloom - redemption and family do get a mention, and there is the odd mention of hope. 'Every little piece of your life will mean something to someone', sings Tom Smith on ''The Weight Of The World''. Surprising subject matters for Editors, some of the finest purveyors of British misery. The title track and ''Spiders'' are also highlights, while ''Push Your Head Towards The Air'', provides a quieter, more reflective moment that stands out all the more for being one of the few on the album. Having said all that; while it's a very easy album to enjoy, it's harder to be blown away by it. If you liked their debut, then this will not disappoint you. But it may have more trouble converting the doubters. Sometimes, good though it is, there is such a thing as too much frantic, wall-of-sound guitar playing, even if it is your signature sound... --Helen Groom This link will take you off Amazon in a new window