Ok so we ran out of 90s girl icon comebacks, here’s this…

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[4.50]

David Sheffieck: The Horrors are one of those bands it’s hard to imagine being anyone’s favorite. They make competent, complacent music that sounds vaguely like bands people used to love but have now half-forgotten. They’re necessary: someone has to fill the mid-day slots at festivals, the space between big hits on the radio, the slots on your party playlist that finish before most people show up. But that’s about the best that can be said about them.
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: Just as the U.S. has a fine tradition of dull, “anthemic” rock, the U.K. has a tradition of dull, “atmospheric” rock. This single slots right in to that tradition. At least it’s not Coldplay, I suppose.
[4]

Patrick St. Michel: Somehow, this feels way longer than one of their early slow burners. Probably because “So Now You Know” just floats around in the air, no real drama or progression, just Faris Badwan’s voice coming through clearly over some noisy but not particularly intimidating guitar. Just putters about.
[4]

Katherine St Asaph: Stadium rock, in that the studio recording is clearly a placeholder for the version that’s got space. Not reverb — though more of that couldn’t hurt, plus a low end — but literal, big, expanse-on-all-sides space. Wish I didn’t hate stadiums.
[5]

Anthony Easton: The synths are heavy on this one, almost leaden, but you can move through them, and nothing quite sinks. It’s also thicker than fog, but too urban and brittle for any of your bog or marsh metaphors. I will embrace the lack of clarity, and admit to enjoying being ever-so-slightly spooked. 
[4]

Megan Harrington: I scaled the volume up and down, I shook my laptop, I inserted several homemade drops by alternating pause/play but there’s nothing to be done. This song is terminally boring. 
[3]

Alfred Soto: Slow build to a blooming organ and fragrant guitar line, its pistil a lead singer who’s gone from Ian McCullough to a less blowzy Bono in three years. If this is your kind of thing, it’s your kind of thing.
[6]

Scott Mildenhall: Without much knowledge of The Horrors it’s unclear if this and their excellent cover of “Boys Keep Swinging” are simply how they always sound, but their mix of wooziness and unintelligibility does stand up for a second time. Whether or not they wanted to evoke Spacehog… maybe not, but that’s certainly a plus point, as well as one of differentiation.
[6]