Editors announce eighth album ‘Surface, Echo & Sound’ with single ‘The Rush’
Editors announce eighth album “Surface, Echo & Sound”, out 30 October on Play It Again Sam, led by single “The Rush” with a Tokyo-shot video.
Editors have announced their eighth studio album, “Surface, Echo & Sound”, set for release on 30 October 2026 through Play It Again Sam. The Birmingham post-punk band confirmed the record on 23 June 2026 alongside the single “The Rush”, which arrives with an official video shot in Tokyo. The eleven-track album follows 2022’s “EBM”.
Guitarist Justin Lockey recorded and produced the album. Frontman Tom Smith wrote it using a stripped-back, acoustic-based approach close to the process behind his 2025 solo debut “There Is Nothing In The Dark⊔, then brought the songs to the band to play together. “Surface, Echo & Sound” includes “Call It In”, the single Editors issued in April 2026, and is available to pre-order on CD, cassette, black and coloured vinyl, and digital. The tracklist is “Surface, Echo & Sound,” “Call It In,” “The Rush,” “Rescue,” “Shadow,” “Real,” “Happiness,” “Much Love,” “Butterfly Wings,” “Seriously” and “The Hills We Died Upon.”
Smith tied the album’s character to where it was made: “It was a very productive summer. 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 title track “The Rush” arrives with a video directed by Henry Ehara and filmed in Tokyo:
Smith plays mandolin on the track, an instrument Lockey placed at the centre of the record’s 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. 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.” He described “The Rush” as an imagined bar scene between two people talking about life: “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.”
Editors 2027 tour dates
- 18 February 2027 â Amsterdam, Netherlands â Ziggo Dome
- 19 February 2027 â Antwerp, Belgium â AFAS Dome
About Editors
Editors formed in 2002 in Birmingham. The line-up of Tom Smith (vocals, guitar, piano), Russell Leetch (bass) and Ed Lay (drums), with Chris Urbanowicz (guitar), signed to Kitchenware Records and issued the debut album “The Back Room” in 2005, carrying the singles “Munich” and “Blood” and a 2006 Mercury Prize nomination. “An End Has a Start” topped the UK chart in 2007, as did “In This Light and on This Evening” in 2009.
The band released the single “Formaldehyde” in 2013, the year of “The Weight of Your Love”; Urbanowicz left in 2012 and Justin Lockey (guitar) and Elliott Williams (keys) joined. “In Dream” followed in 2015 and “Violence” in 2018, led by “Magazine”, before “EBM” in 2022. The current line-up of Smith, Leetch, Lay, Lockey and Williams now sets “Surface, Echo & Sound” for 30 October 2026.
Based in WrocĆaw, I work as a music journalist and photographer covering electro, industrial, EBM, gothic, and darkwave. My work includes features and live coverage, as well as concert, portrait, promo, and theater photography. What interests me most is the connection between artistic intention, what the work communicates, and what unfolds live on stage, all in pursuit of the bigger picture behind the music.
Since youâre here âŠ
⊠we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news organisations, we havenât put up a paywall â we want to keep our journalism as open as we can - and we refuse to add annoying advertising. So you can see why we need to ask for your help.
Side-Lineâs independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine â and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
