UK alt-rock band Editors explore 'Surface, Echo & Sound' in October

Editors' 8th studio album, Surface, Echo & Sound, is slated for release on October 30 through Play It Again Sam. The latest single is "The Rush." 

Watch the video HERE

Following 2022’s EBM, a collaboration with electronic producer Benjamin John Power, aka Blanck Mass, on Surface, Echo & Sound, Editors have found themselves somewhere new entirely. When the band regrouped in summer 2025 to work on a follow-up, after three albums written and recorded very much as in-the-studio projects, Editors felt they wanted to go back to a more natural approach, something that harked back to their earliest days, sat in a practice room in Stafford, facing each other as they worked through songs together.

Like on last year’s solo record There is Nothing In The Dark That Isn’t There In The Light, frontman Tom Smith took a similar stripped back, acoustic-based approach to the new Editors material, bringing a selection of songs to the band for them to play together, trying different things out, and seeing where they went. 

In terms of creating the record, “It was a very productive summer, ” says Smith. “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!”

"The Rush" is described by the frontman as an imagined bar scene of two people talking about life, drinking, and thinking about all the ups and downs. Smith continues, “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. It’s a theme that is in everything to a degree.”

The track features Smith on mandolin, an instrument that provides 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,” says the band’s 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 single arrives alongside an official video, shot in Tokyo and directed by Henry Ehara.

Pre-Order / Save The Album HERE

Formed in 2002, having met at university in Birmingham, Editors have released seven studio albums all of which achieved top 10 status in the UK. Their debut album, The Back Room (2005) received a Mercury Prize nomination and the 2007 follow up, An End Has A Start, reached number 1 in the UK and went on to earn a Brit Award nomination. Their 2009 album In This Light And On This Evening also hit the top spot in the UK album charts.

Track list:

Surface, Echo & Sound
Call It In
The Rush
Rescue
Shadow
Real
Happiness
Much Love
Butterfly Wings
Seriously
The Hills We Died Upon