There are albums that are instantly lovable and others that need more time to be fully understood and appreciated – The Weight of Your Love is presumably one of them.
In an already experimental collection of albums, The Weight of Your Love is indeed different from Editors previous LPs, remaining shadowy at times but definitely lighter in tone and less electronic.
The songs sound comprehensively less rocking, with violins and echoing voices interspersed in more than one track – even those not meant as ballads, like ‘Honesty’ or the foot-tapping beat in opener ‘The Weight’.
The new album takes a U-turn back to the group’s beginnings. Editors’ trademark is still there – like the mood in ‘Sugar’,reminiscent of their previous albums’ eerie atmospheres with bass lines and distorted guitar riffs interwoven with high-pitched piano, while ‘A Ton of Love’, not surprisingly chosen as the first single off the record, is a slice of driving guitar-fuelled Americana typical of Editors.
But it’s also true that there’s a general feeling that the band has lost some sheen with this new material. There is the usual space for ballads like ‘Nothing’, but if you want the high points you’ll need to stick with the centre eight tracks. It’s not a terrible album, just uninspiring – nothing is genuinely un-skippable.
Whatever the case, Editors have released a well-mastered album that gives attentive audiences something to talk about for a few weeks until it ceases to impress.
3/5 stars
CARLA PAVEZ
The Weight Of Your Love is out now through PIAS.
