Continuing one of the rapidest musical evolutions in recent memory, The Horrors’ third album finds them so far removed from their Strange House, Edward Gorey goth-punk beginnings that they’re completely unrecognizable. Building on 2009’s career-making Primary Colours, Skying is painted in even broader, blurrier shoegaze smears; the title even refers to a ’60s-era, primitive phasing technique, which hints at the warped textures within. But where the post-punk-derived Primary hewed toward the gloomily monochromatic when it came to actual melodies, Skying finds The Horrors embracing the anthemic choruses of ’80s new wave—epitomized by “Still Life,” with its evoking of Simple Minds in their John Hughes heyday — and, on tracks like “Changing the Rain” and “Dive In” especially, the blissed-out grooves of “baggy”-era Madchester. It’s another expertly muso mélange of influences (an OMD keyboard intro here, a woozy My Bloody Valentine guitar glide there), but here, it produces an even more singular, arresting sound. MORE
