The Horrors – She Is The New Thing (Loog)

Spooky NME cover bitches with crazy hair and funny names. Beyond that, they are a band. This is their latest single.

It’s ironic that it bears the title ‘She Is The New Thing,’ as this track carries the dust, cobwebs and grave-stink of half a dozen influences from the last five decades. First, it comes stomping at you like the Cramps’ ‘Human Fly,’ Coffin Joe and Joshua Third doing their level best to capture the rotten-brained psychobilly legend’s inexorable bone-crushing rhythm ‘n’ riff combo. Next thing you know, Faris Badwin is taking you to the Monster Mash, bending your ear about his latest would-be squeeze and how the relationship is ultimately doomed. Cheerful, though, in a Syd Barrett moment of lucidity style.

The chorus is a different kettle of bats, with screams stripped from the burnt-out shell of the Special’s ‘Ghost Town’ twinkling with an iridescent patina of Madness’ catchiness that brings the whole thing home without upsetting its flow.

Schlocky as hell, this track smacks of BBC Radiophonic Workshop records and spooked-up teenage Halloween parties, but packs a pounding sledgehammer of a melody like Rocket From The Crypt. Different hair, different names but they make a decent mailed fist of other people’s music.