One month, forty five items of interest and some interesting progress by Editors. These were the highlights of May 2019.
It started out with cause for alarm. Nemone's Electric Ladyland on BBC 6Music played some quality electronica by Mr Williams, but when the host referred to the man himself she said that he:-
"...used to be in the Editors."
Oh dear. Was this the end of Elliott as a member of the band? Was it really all over for him after 7 years? A little bit of digging revealed that is was a slip of the tongue and nothing more. I can confirm with a relieved sigh that Elliott, is still an Editor.
On the 15th of May Tom appeared on Instagram with a filter and an acoustic guitar to play Barricades. As well as being something that nobody expected, it confirmed that the song could be played live and that meant it was a potential candidate for the forthcoming live shows on Editors' calendar. Speaking of which...
6 days later Tom posted a picture of a potential setlist for the impending summer shows, in what at first appeared to be some deliberate, calculated fan trolling on his part because at least one of those titles seemed dubious. I say it was a potential setlist because even the very bottom of the piece of paper he shared a snap of says:-
"E D I T O R S May Set ? 21/5/2019"
Note that question mark. This appeared to be a list of ideas and probabilities rather than something more certain. Then almost immediately afterwards the band's official Instagram account posted the same picture with the caption "School Boy Shit", possibly indicating their acknowledgement of some juvenile prank going on?
Nope.
This was pretty close to the actual set they played a few days later when they returned to live activities. This was not a joke. I think the Schoolboy Shit comment was referring to the fact that Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors had been written out in full, with Doors ending up on a separate line and looking like a standalone song title. A School Boy error.
So the setlist was very interesting for two reasons; firstly there was a possibility of Barricades making a full-band debut. It did, but in reality that isn't the main talking point here. No, that would be the fact that a tune called Frankenstein was indicated as being the set closer. The question became "Are they joking?" once more. The hardcore fans out here had never even heard of this as a working title, so once again they managed to keep a lid on its existence. In a time of history where secrets are a scarce commodity due to social media leakage, the circle of trust around Editors is apparently pretty secure. Was it possible that they were going to close out a festival show in front of a crowd that is probably in the mindset of "Let's see what you've got, then", with a song that absolutely nobody knows? And did they really put together a tune called "Frankenstein", of all things?
They did.
Frankenstein debuted on the 24th May 2019 at Bearded Theory festival with Mr Willes still doing the understudy thing for an absent Mr Lockey. As yet we don't have any recordings of that first airing it to check out. However, the following day at This is Tomorrow they played it again and our favourite benefactor beside the bass bins was there to capture it and put it out into the world. As I'm writing this, Frankenstein is the most popular video I've posted and it's really got people talking. Love it or hate it (more on that soon), we now at least have a point of reference that we can all use to form our respective opinions. That's all thanks to you, Gary. Once again, many thanks for sharing.
Some people really don't like it, which is absolutely fine because discourse can be a great educational tool. Not everything that Editors do is going to be universally appreciated and we all have our favourite songs, as well as those we perhaps heard once or twice and then didn't go back to. If all their songs were unquestionably loved then they'd outsell Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, whilst no doubt succeeding in being the most bland but black-clad band on the planet. There has to be some polarisation among the fans because if not, you're either pandering or you're a demonstrable genius. Plus, it shows that what you're doing matters enough for people to care on way or another.
Others may feel the same as I do about Frankenstein in that I think there's something there, and once they've gotten a handle on how to fully deliver it, it'll be fantastic. The big comparison being made is with Papillon, and it's a fair one. They played that a few times live before it came out officially and if you look back at it now, you can see the differences. Musically it was all in place, but the delivery and familiarity with it were still in their infancy. Once Editors balanced all that out through repetition and experience, once they fully realised the potential it had, it became something unstoppable. I feel the same way about Frankenstein. There's something darkly attractive about it and I know it will get even better once they catch up to it, and you know that they will. Plus, there's nothing wrong with giving your audience an excuse to dance, or gloomily shuffle from foot to foot in our case.
Firstly I wonder how old this song is? Remember that when The Weight of the World finally got released in 2007 it was already 7 years old. Is this a track that was left over from a previous recording bout that's perhaps been renamed/reworked? We still have two songs outstanding from the Crear sessions:-
He comes from the Quiet
The Wind on the Water
It could even be brand new, and that would seem more likely given the stylistic presence of Elliott in its structure. These are the things we'll no doubt learn once the press start asking their questions down the line. Also, who was involved in the writing? We've seen recently with Barricades that people outside the band themselves are getting writing credits on Editors' music, so was Frankenstein produced "in house" or is this something that had outside involvement?
One bizarre side-effect of them releasing a song with that title is that on of the old Editors Oddities posts suddenly started getting more traffic. It took a little while to make the connection, but when I did it made me grin for the rest of the day.
Tom appeared on the OJ Borg show on the 25th May it came up in conversation that Editors will be releasing a Greatest Hits collection at the end of the year. What this means in terms of their future is anyone's guess. An end of contract obligation, or a footnote to everything that came before prior to them beginning whatever's next? That they worked recently with Jacknife Lee could be them revisiting old material, or they may be creating new songs, possibly for inclusion on the album as bonus tracks? Time will tell.
Enjoy the May memories ;)
Enjoy the May memories ;)
Editors Instagram May 2019
For all of Editors previous Instagram posts, go here.
brought to you with lots and lots of lemming-love :) x
