The Back Room - Editors
Metascore
76 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 23
  2. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. The Back Room is a fine album that proves you can look backward while paving the way forward.
  2. Alternative rock hasn't seen anything like this since the release of Turn on the Bright Lights. The catch: not only is The Back Room better, it holds promise for even better things in the future.
  3. It's how Interpol would sound like if they dealt with universal themes and reflection rather than singing about fellatio fantasies with Stella, or their length of loves.
  4. It's an album of consistently high quality from start to finish.
  5. If you were disappointed by 'Antics' then this'll make up for it, and if Interpol's last offering did agree with you then you'll spend the rest of '05 at least giving this a great big hug.
  6. 80
    Guitars, sounding like synths, soar into the stratosphere, and intense crescendos linger over delicate, breathy passages. [Aug 2005, p.94]
  7. Where [Interpol] often seem weighed down by their own miserable aura, Editors sound brightest in teh depths of their blackened pop gems. [Apr 2006, p.204]
  8. The longer you listen, the better they become.
  9. Leavening the melancholy with a tense, literate sense of foreboding, The Back Room flows like an obsidian wave from first song to last.
  10. The Back Room is an agreeable, sturdy, and surprisingly re-playable debut, one which should probably keep any brooding college kid who's worn out his copy of Antics happy for the coming autumn.
  11. "The Back Room" is, principally, a triumph.
  12. Editors' sound is deeply and thoroughly derivative, to be sure. But they do it so well that by the time each chorus rolls around, you won't even notice your Robert Smith mascara running. [#10, p.110]
  13. As much as The Back Room is a victory for style, it also strikes a blow for substance. [Aug 2005, p.135]
  14. [They] possess a knack for tempering melodrama with minor keys and predictable beats. [Apr/May 2006, p.102]
  15. It is such a perfect counterfeit that it feels like the genuine article.
  16. The Back Room is an assured debut album from a promising band.
  17. Bands like Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen are hard acts to follow, especially when they're followed so deliberately. [24 Mar 2006, p.70]
  18. They're good at what they do, but what they're doing is painting-by-numbers from someone else's book.
  19. Editors sound like an earnest rock band who grew up loving the same bands as the current batch of revivalists, but beyond the workmanlike interpretations of their heroes, it's hard to swallow.
  20. Because these swirls of desperation are as much about aura as fully formed tunes, their payoff is negligible. [23 Mar 2006, p.65]
  21. The Back Room has the feeling of an album cobbled together too quickly.
  22. The album starts repeating itself and the returns start diminishing.
User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 85 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 52 out of 60
  2. Negative: 3 out of 60
  1. DJ
    10
    Truly beautiful record by this band. They dp everything right and the end product is truly mesmerizing and uplifting. One of the best albums in the last 10 years, which is saying alot. Full Review »
  2. JamesM
    8
    Please don't buy this album expecting to hear anything original. Interpol are the most obvious reference and anyone who likes them will get on with Editors. All Sparks is almost the sound of an Interpol tribute band! A few low points but at least 5 or 6 belting tracks probably the best being the anthemic (almost U2 like) 'Bullets.' Top live band as well. Full Review »
  3. MattD
    8
    Great album, which grows on you with each play. Some of the tracks do have a feeling that they may have been rushed, but excellent for a debut – a band to watch out for the future. They also put on a good live performance. Full Review »