Indie rock 4-piece Editors came out with their sophomore album "An End Has a Start" in 2007.

I heard "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors" around the time of its release and really liked it. There was something about it that really appealed to me. Though the song isn’t technically showy, it isn’t simplistic either. The rhythms expressed are paced nicely, nothing incredibly fast, but it doesn’t drag down and become boring. Unfortunately, I can’t say that for the rest of the album.

I’m not going to completely bag this out though. Maybe the whole stadium-rock vibe just gets a little worn-out for me, I’m not going to lie. As my musical tastes have grown, I’ve come to appreciate bands who are consistently excellent at what they do with their songs and what they’re trying to achieve, bands who are diverse over the course of a record in an appropriate manner and keep things interesting, and the few bands that manage to do both.

Editors are good at what they do, but it gets old for me. Tracks like "The Weight of the World" seem strained to me. The lyrical quality on some songs leaves something to be desired. It isn’t simply that they’re bad, I wouldn’t say that. But they just feel a little devoid of originality. I normally don’t like being this harsh, and this is the nicest way I can put it, but they don’t seem like something fresh! I generally try to judge a band based alone on it’s merits and my enjoyment, not relative to other releases from other bands, but that’s the only logical reason I can find for this feeling. Lyrically, the songs aren’t that enjoyable for me, and rhythmically, the vocals at times feel forced.

Negativity aside, I find that there are some very bright glimmers of songs. "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors", "An End Has a Start" (both singles, I know, I don’t normally cling to singles as the high-points of albums), "The Racing Rats", and "Escape The Nest" to a lesser extent than the others, are quite enjoyable on the whole. Melodically they’re interesting, and the lyrics seem quite good.

Basically, I find this album suffers from an over-done repetitive style and uninspiring lyrics, but, there are points where certain songs stand out as being quite fun and good.

Score: 3/10