Editors - In This Light And On This Evening

Editors take the obvious next step in their career path. Having pushed their moody Joy Division tribute as far as possible across two albums, the band have embraced electronic sounds on third opus 'In This Light And On This Evening' - much like JD toyed with on 'Closer'.

The band aren't the first indie band to ackowledge synthersized sounds in the work; most recently Radiohead and Bloc Party took on an IDM approach on records like 'Kid A', 'Amnesiac' and 'A Weekend In The City' - but where those bands sought to find new ground by flirting with digital trickery and programmed beats, Editors recall the 80s synth-sounds of Depeche Mode and New Order, to form an almost identical replica.

Seemingly blurring into one another, each of the nine songs take on bass synths, bubbling keyboard effects and the gentle patter of programmed vintage drum machines. Vocalist Tom Smith still does his best at emulating the late Ian Curtis - albeit stripped of the genuine tear-jerk emotion we heard from one of rock music's greatest ever frontmen.

Sharing none of the rawness, the open-eyed experimentation or originality of their influences, 'In This Light And On This Evening' at times, oversteps the mark between tribute and plagiarism. A band of their size and experience should at least be trying to attempt new ideas they can call their own.