What the Horrors Already Knew

Something about Skying felt different from the moment it arrived. Not just the shift from horror-punk theatrics to something more absorbed in shoegaze and motorik krautrock—the whole record had a patience to it, a willingness to let things move slowly and trust the listener to stay. I Can See Through You is one of the best arguments for why that patience paid off.

Faris Badwan’s voice on this track floats above the arrangement rather than anchoring it—ghosting through the production, present but not quite locatable. The title promises transparency, the ability to look straight through someone and see what’s there. The music refuses that directness entirely. It’s hazy, layered, a little hypnotic. Seeing through you turns out to mean something closer to: I know what you are even when you won’t say it. That’s a different kind of clarity.

There’s a type of English band that hits its stride on the third record—the awkwardness of the debut burned off, the sophomore ambition tempered by something more considered. The Horrors got there. Skying is the sound of a band that had stopped performing at being interesting and just became it.