Rock Reimagined

The Horrors: Hidden Away (2013)

I got into The Horrors after a big breakup back in 2013. I discovered them through a mention in an interview with Savages after they had just risen to fame with the release of Silence Yourself. Needing more goth music I quickly devoured their discography and spent much of 2013 indulging in their musical essence.

The Horrors are one of the top bands of the 2010s in both musical quality and conceptual consistency. What started as a horrrrific teenage mod garage group with a stunningly raucous debut reminiscent of The Birthday Party and New York Dolls soon transformed into a gothy progressive/art rock collective of epic proportions. Their second album Primary Colours, while going in many different directions, is musically flawless. They really are just that good.

Around this point I thought it would be great to create a b-sides and rarities compilation album much like Nirvana's Incesticide. This proved relatively effortless as there is a literal ton of recordings of serious musical quality available on singles and EPs that were released intermittently between their first three albums. Their last album Luminous was released this past spring, and boy is it good.

The great thing about the Horrors is that they are also serious music fans, so it is no surprise that their range of songwriting is rather wide while still remaining relatively accessible. To add to this, the Horrors are probably the most EMOTIONAL band I can think of. Unlike their emo adversaries who release overproduced plastic music whose only emotional element is that of a whiny 13 year old going through puberty, the Horrors write and arrange music that makes you seriously FEEL things.

Where a band like Pink Floyd or King Crimson make music that transports you places which in many ways you enables you to SEE things, the Horrors' music is less visual but entirely sentimental. They are the perfect band to listen to after a bad breakup or alternately while fornicating. Their songwriting abilities on a communicative and emotional level are close to Beatles or Nirvana in appealing to the sentiment of young people who feel too many things. This might explain their large female and queer fanbase rather than the dude-brahs who are more commonly fans of more seriously minded music (think progressive rock or metal). While the Horrors are very musically progressive in their compositions and arrangements, this sure ain't your daddy's prog rock. They are, if anything, the definition of prog-pop.

Culled from numerous releases are the following songs which I arranged to best create a smooth flow. The material ranges from their early garage rock songs to the beautiful synth/guitar art rock balladry of their more recent material. The album closes off with a 12 minute radio version of Moving Further Away, the standout track on their third album Skying.

Track list:

1. Best Thing I Never Had

2. Suffragette City

3. You Could Never Tell

4. You Said (Alternative)

5. Crawdaddy Simone

6. You Think I'm Lonely

7. No Love Lost (Live)

8. A Knife In Their Eye

9. Whole New Way

10. The Witch

11. Hysteria