In This Light and on This Evening

Oh, the agony of being Tom Smith. On Editors’ third album, In This Light and on This Evening, God deserts him. The sun forsakes him. Not even superproducer Flood (U2, Depeche Mode) can save the postpunk singer from misery. Or from overacting: With his tortured baritone, he sounds like Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments, bellowing every line as if trying to part the Red Sea. Add some Philip Glass-style doom-synths and song titles cribbed from a vampire’s SATs (”Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool”), and all that gravitas sounds like comedy. ”You already know the way I feel inside!” moans Smith. Wait, don’t tell us! Sad? D

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