The Back Room

The Back Room
Studio album by Editors
Released	25 July 2005
Recorded	2004—2005
Genre	Indie rock, post-punk revival
Length	43:48
Label	Kitchenware
Producer	Jim Abbiss, Gavin Monaghan (track 8)
Editors chronology
The Back Room (2005) An End Has a Start (2007)
Singles from The Back Room
"Bullets" Released: 24 January 2005 "Munich" Released: 18 April 2005 "Blood" Released: 11 July 2005 "Bullets (reissue)" Released: 26 September 2005 "Munich (reissue)" Released: 2 January 2006 "All Sparks" Released: 27 March 2006 "Blood (reissue)" Released: 19 June 2006

The Back Room is the debut studio album by British post-punk revival band Editors, released on 25 July 2005. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 13 in July 2005, before peaking at number 2 in January 2006. It was produced by Jim Abbiss, and was released by Kitchenware in the United Kingdom, PIAS Recordings in Europe, and Fader Label in the United States.

The album was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Prize.

Overview

A limited special two-disc edition of The Back Room was released in the United Kingdom, the second disc (called Cuttings) comprising unused tracks from the album recording sessions and B-sides. In the Netherlands and Germany, the album was re-released in a limited, Festival Edition CD/DVD set including a 50-minute concert recorded at Paradiso in Amsterdam, on 30 January 2006.

Editors received substantial critical acclaim for their release of The Back Room. NME gave it a rating of 8/10 saying "Never before have doom and gloom sounded so surprisingly uplifting and hopeful" and that Editors "have created a debut that will endure." Drowned in Sound gave The Back Room a rating of 9/10, citing, "this is a record many people will be able to live inside for a very long time." The album also received a 2006 Mercury Prize nomination.

The song "Munich" was featured on the Xbox 360 game Saints Row,^[1] as well as on the multi-platform game FIFA Street 2.^[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	76/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Entertainment Weekly	B−[5]
The Guardian	[6]
The Irish Times	[7]
Mojo	[8]
NME	8/10[9]
Pitchfork Media	6.0/10[10]
Q	[11]
Rolling Stone	[12]
The Village Voice	C+[13]

The Back Room received generally positive reviews with a Metacritic score of 76 based on 23 reviews.^[3] E! Online has written that "The Back Room is a fine album that proves you can look backward while paving the way forward", giving an album score 91 of 100. Drowned in Sound has written that 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". AllMusic Guide said that "Alternative rock hasn't seen anything like this since the release of Turn on the Bright Lights." NME wrote that "this is a debut that will endure", and The Guardian wrote "The longer you listen, the better they become." However, Pitchfork Media has written that "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."

Track listing

All tracks by Lay, Leetch, Smith, Urbanowicz.

• Videos of the concert at the Paradiso, Amsterdam – January 30, 2006

Credits

• Editors – art direction, design
• Jim Abbiss – producer, engineer
• Garret Lee – producer, engineer
• Gavin Monaghan – producer, engineer
• Loz Brazil – engineer
• Ewan Davis – engineer
• Andy Taylor – engineer, digital editing
• Cenzo Townshend – mixing
• Amy E. Bartell – photography

Chart performance

References