The Horrors have, so far, managed to completely transform their sound from album to album, starting off with the haunted-house garage rock of 2007’s ‘Strange House’ to the smoother neo-psychedelic sound of 2011’s ‘Skying’ with the harsher and darker shoegaze album ‘Primary Colours’ from 2009 bridging the gap between the two together. Enter ‘Luminous’, the majestic fourth LP and arguably the best yet, taking elements from each previous album and blending it into ten colourful tracks.

The album kicks off with ‘Chasing Shadows’ which is accompanied by a 3 minute introduction that is only to be expected from this band. The tribal vibe that the intro gives off ceases to exist as soon as the explosion led by the pounding of the drums from Joseph Spurgeon and the My Bloody Valentine-esque heavily distorted wall of noise that the guitar brings.  ‘First Day Of Spring’ is a “fast-moving train that has no intention of stopping” according to guitarist Joshua Hayward, which is an accurate description. However, this train halts for a second or two towards the end and takes a different route where we are introduced to a guitar solo in the vaguest sense of the term and by the end, you are very glad that this train took the route that it did.

Bassist Rhys Webb said before the release of this album that “We want to make music you can dance to, music that elevates.” This album has certainly fulfilled those ambitions as the groove that previously hasn’t been too apparent in the Horrors’ music has now been found, and the music is all the better for it. A shining example of this new-found groove is in track ‘In And Out Of Sight’, sparkled with synthesizers and a bassline that guides the song into the path of disco music (without all the cheesiness that comes with that particular genre).

‘Jealous Sun’ creates a blurred atmosphere with woozy synth sounds implemented in the chorus contrasting with the chugging guitar riffs in the verse. ‘I See You’, lead single and contender for best track on the album contains a strangely optimistic Faris Badwan, echoing riffs and a splattering of 80’s electro-pop synths that culminate in an exhilarating crescendo that continues to rise and rise, definitely the ‘Sea Within A Sea’ of this album. ‘Change Your Mind’ sees the usual wall of sound that we’re used to from The Horrors stripped back so we can hear Badwan at his most sombre with lyrics like “My heart should know / Better not to fall in love”.

Penultimate track ‘Mine And Yours’ has guitars roaring all over the place, shifting from verse to chorus with ease until the middle eight takes us towards the triumphant ending that contains a declaration of “I’ve been thinking ‘bout the way that I love”.  Luminous closes with the dreamy and atmospheric ‘Sleepwalk’, dipped in swells of modulated electronic patterns.

The album feels very precise and rightly so since the album has been three years in the making, being delayed several times so that the band could perfect the sound, it isn’t a massive leap from Skying sonically but there is a certain atmosphere that the ten tracks here create that is entirely different to everything else that they have done. Their status as one of Britain’s best and innovative bands is well and truly cemented with this album and it leaves you with the question of: Where will The Horrors go next with their sound?