British band The Horrors, album cover for Luminous.
At first they were just haircuts - five Beatles-gone-horribly-wrong bobs that made these Brit-rockers look like real life versions of South Park's Goth Kids.
But over three gloriously glammy albums the Horrors proved they were more than just weird fringes - especially on 2009's Primary Colours, a brilliant dose of
Cure-inspired gloom-rock that topped album of the year lists of critics and hipsters alike.
While 2011's Skying suffered ever-so-slightly from keeping-the-ship-steady syndrome, there's no hint of that on Luminous, the five-piece's fourth album that delivers precision drone-rock in the cleanest, crispest Horrors guise yet. It's also - thanks to the constant presence of other-wordly samples and spaced-out synths - their weirdest album to date. It's all the better for it.
Try the whistles, wobbles and odd synth patterns of So Now You Know, a song that starts with a slow-building stomp before unleashing the Horrors' best chorus to date: a dramatic head rush of ghostly drones and Faris Badwan's haunting vocals. It's just one of many memorable moments on Luminous, an album backed by an addictive danceable throb.
There's the deliciously 80s mood setter In and Out of Sight, which comes with the kind of whispered vocals and upbeat bass riff that could soundtrack a Breakfast Club remake. Falling Star is an orchestra-assisted oddity that twists and turns dramatically, while album centrepiece I See You delivers a stunning slice of shimmering space-pop.
