The Horrors - I See You

Hooray! The Horrors are back! Pretty much the only UK guitar band of the last eight years to buck the prevailing trend by actually getting better with each album, they don’t disappoint on this new single. ‘I See You’ is not so much a step on from last album Skying as an expansion sideways.

The Horrors still sound like every great bit of early 80s alt-pop (Bunnymen, Psychedelic Furs, Bowie, Numan, Depeche Mode, Simple Minds) and they still do that better than any two-bit 80s-revivalist band can manage. However, thanks to a monumentally funky bassline, skipping drums and some excellent synth-work, ‘I See You’ also holds the honour of being the first Horrors song to make you actually want to dance.

But there’s more: like ‘Sea Within a Sea’ before it, this song’s a seven-minuter, so as well as the welcome bootie-shaking vibes we also get an intro which sounds like Krautrock uber-group Harmonia, some dubby effects on the guitars, and a whole break-it-down-and-built-it-up section before a pounding, riffing, euphoric final. Et voila! The Horrors have once more effortlessly made every other band look like Mumford & Sons in orthopaedic shoes. Job done.