Editors have announced their eighth studio album, ‘Surface, Echo & Sound’ – listen to new single ‘The Rush’ below.
The Birmingham band are due to release the 11-track record on October 30 via Play It Again Sam, following on from 2022’s ‘EBM’. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.
‘Surface, Echo & Sound’ will feature Tom Smith and co’s previous single ‘Call It In’, which they shared in April alongside news of a UK and European tour for 2027.
For their upcoming new LP, Editors adopted a more organic approach to creating music after reuniting last summer. This harked back to their earliest days in a practice room in Stafford, when they worked through songs together.
Their recent albums had been written and recorded as in-the-studio projects. For ‘Surface, Echo & Sound’, frontman Smith took a stripped-back, acoustic-based approach – similar to the process on his debut solo album, 2025’s ‘There Is Nothing In The Dark…’.
He brought a selection of songs to the band for them to play together, trying different things out, and seeing where this led them.
“It was a very productive summer,” recalled Smith of creating the record. “The sun was out for the most part, we were in greenest Gloucestershire, not far from where I live, on this innocuous little industrial estate – it was pretty much the opposite of being in Berghain!”
New single ‘The Rush’ is described by the frontman as an imagined bar scene featuring two people talking about life, while drinking and thinking about all the ups and downs they’ve faced over the years.
“That idea of finding comfort in people close to me, friends and loved ones and family, is a theme that comes up all the time,” he went on. “It’s a theme that is in everything to a degree.”
The track finds Smith on mandolin, with the instrument bringing a more organic core to ‘Surface, Echo & Sound’.
“It’s not used in a folky kind of way, but it brings a warm element that can spike through anything in the mix,” explained guitarist Justin Lockey, who also recorded and produced the album.
“As a texture, it’s definitely a big character on this record. A lot of the rhythms come from the mandolin and the acoustic as much as they do from the drums.”
‘The Rush’ is accompanied by an official video, shot in Tokyo. The visuals were directed by Henry Ehara, who is known for work that emphasises bodily expression in film, exploring the physicality of movement and presence.
The tracklist for Editors’ ‘Surface, Echo & Sound’ is:
‘Surface, Echo & Sound’
‘Call It In’
‘The Rush’
‘Rescue’
‘Shadow’
‘Real’
‘Happiness’
‘Much Love’
‘Butterfly Wings’
‘Seriously’
‘The Hills We Died Upon’
Editors have also added two new shows to their 2027 European tour: Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome on February 18, and Antwerp’s AFAS Dome on February 19.
See the rest of their European and UK dates here – including a concert at the new 3,500-capacity The Warehouse at Birmingham’s Villa Park – and find any remaining tickets here.
NME gave Editors’ previous album a three-star review, writing: “Unlike their early records, on ‘EBM’, Editors straddle heart-tugging hits with their now more familiar, visceral rock numbers. Synth-stabbing ‘Strawberry Lemonade’, for instance, is as unnerving as it is foot stomping with its screeching bleeps and drum beats. Elsewhere, the bludgeoning ‘Picturesque’ comes on like a frenzied attack to the senses and ‘Strange Intimacy’ is a head-spinning closer that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
“‘EBM’, then, goes some way to bringing the seasoned band back to what they do best, all the while pushing things forward.”