The Horrors: Strange House

For the NME cover darlings The Horrors, who hide behind layers of goth posturing and hateful stage antics, image obviously comes first. The group's full-length debut, Strange House, almost seems like an afterthought, so it's a surprise that it delivers on more than just shock value. Harkening back to every "confrontational" act from The Monks to The Cramps, The Horrors hawk up great gobs of trashy art-punk mixed with organ-driven '60s garage rock. (They also share more than a few bats in the belfry with The Birthday Party and The Damned, whose theatricality and "horror-punk" imagery is an obvious antecedent.) A cover of Screaming Lord Sutch's "Jack The Ripper" is a winking way to kick things off, but Faris Rotter's phlegmy invective on slash-and-burn singles "Count In Fives" and "Sheena Is A Parasite" sounds genuinely, gloriously deranged. If only they spent as much time writing spiky gems like these as they do on their hair and makeup.