EDITORS THE BACK ROOM ALBUM KITCHENWARE, PLAYGROUND RELEASE: AUGUST 15, 2005 REVIEW: SEPTEMBER 15, 2005

A fetish for Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen makes this Birmingham outfit prime suspects as poseurs, trying to cash in on the post punk/new wave-nostalgia flooding the Western world at the moment.

Maybe they are. But then again, so is Interpol, and we like those lads, don't we?

And a good song is a good song is a good song, as many wise men have stated before me. There are good tunes aplenty, even besides "Lights" and "Munich". After a couple of listens, "The Back Room" reveals a tapestry - perhaps familiar, yet enjoyable - of accomplished angst pop tracks like "Blood" and "Fingers in Factories" with a pumping bass and plucking, glimmering shards of 80:s-styled guitars.

I still hold the more somber Interpol a bit higher as true inheritors of the Joy Division legacy. But Editors are good competition. Not original, but with a personal twist.

KALLE MALMSTEDT