Sunday Morning Music: The Horrors' "Sea Within A Sea"

I had never heard of the Horrors before a co-worker handed me the CD "Primary Colors." He had attached a note to the front: "Sounds like MBV, with a little Joy Division, maybe a little Cure. GREAT."

Yeah, I thought. Great. Sounds like a total goth trainwreck. I stuffed the CD in my bag for a couple of weeks and forgot about it. After having run out of new releases to listen to and discard, I threw the disc onto my iPod. What I got was a nearly perfect song for Sunday morning, "Sea Within A Sea."

The Horrors are what I call a VBB (Very British Band) and I'm getting a lot of blank stares when I mention them. (People in the indie set find it easier to just not say anything if they have no idea what band you're talking about; this neither confirms nor denies their knowledge.) It seems that they've proven my theory that it's possible to be on the cover of NME and still have everyone ignore you.

The video is an over eight minute epic, suitable for your first cup of coffee. Bonus points to whomever can tell me who the announcer is. I find the flashing psychedelic colors oddly soothing. Faris Badwan has the longest nose you will ever see and his haircut only serves to make him look like he used to be a crow, but made a deal with a nature spirit to become human. He wanders around stage, disaffected, while the editor intercuts unrelated stock footage. This song gets even better on repeated listens...that bass, the odd shimmy of the guitar that I didn't expect in something so very goth.

Wherefore art thou new music, the Horrors? I think it's your time.