With a title like Night Life, one might assume that The Horrors would drop listeners into the sweatiest, dingiest, bassiest warehouse after-hours on their latest album. That’s a semi-reasonable assumption if you heard the band’s 2021 EPs, Lout and Against the Blade, but it’s also an incorrect one. On the U.K. band’s six album— their first full-length in seven years— night life is hushed and melancholy. It’s gothic, not goth, i.e. more Brontë sisters than Sisters of Mercy.
In fact, Night Life opens on a peak gothic note with “Ariel.” That intro sets a brilliantly creepy vibe. It sounds like horses galloping in the dark. And the haunted echo of Faris Badwan’s vocals as he sings, “the fear that all the ones we love all say goodbye, just vanishes to the shapeless night,” just heightens that. I feel like I just slipped into an episode of Dark Shadows. It’s a great way to kick off the album.
Something that I appreciate about The Horrors is that each of their albums has a distinct vibe. Strange House was their Batcave album. Primary Colors was a little noise rock with an undertone of ‘60s pop. (I still can’t get enough of “Who Can Say.”) Skying got psychedelic and Luminous veered into shoegaze terrain. Then, with V, the band went into a classic alternative/indie dance space and closed the album with what’s probably my favorite song of the ‘10s, “Something to Remember Me By.” Then, on the 2021 EPs Lout and Against the Blade, they headed down this kind of bizarre ‘90s industrial rock path.
On Night Life all of these threads of The Horrors past lives come together in a way that works overall. Even the industrial rock elements on “Silent Sister” is tempered down to a point where a listener who ordinarily cringes when hearing that sound (that’s me, btw) can handle it.
Night Life works best when The Horrors play it sad. “The Silence That Remains,” which was previously released as a single has an amazing eerie, ambient intro that lurks under the breakbeat once the song gets started. It’s a very dark song despite being danceable, which is probably why it has landed in my DJ sets. At 7+ minutes, “Lotus Eater” is a techno meditation on the fleeting nature of time that’s less for the dance floor and more for the times when you need to zone out and wonder, “What the fuck am I doing with my life?”
“When the Rhythm Breaks” brings back some of the psychedelic elements from The Horror’s earlier albums, albeit in a quietly reflective way. It’s a very gentle song, roughly equivalent to watching water ripple. Some of that psychedelia lingers in the album’s fantastic closer, “LA Runaway.” It’s a poignant conclusion to the album, a song about running off to “the other side of the world” and still feeling out of sorts.
In a way, I’m going into this review blind. I don’t have any press materials to reference, so I don’t know if there’s a story behind the album that I’m missing. Since I bought the album this morning, I’ve listened to the album a few times. That said, I completely reserve the right to change any of the opinions expressed in this review next week. But, overall, Night Life is a solid album from The Horrors that synthesizes the varied music styles they’ve played with over the past 20 years into a cohesive sound.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram or Bluesky for more updates.
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