The Back Room
by Editors

The Back Room by Editors
Year: 2005
Release date: 2005-07-25
Overall rank: 1,724th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 253 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 2005 (38th)
Award Top albums of of the 2000s (275th)
Award Best albums of all time (1,724th)

Listen on Spotify SPOTIFY
Sorry, no matches on eBay for "The Back Room Editors".

  My favourite store:  

Listen & Collect

Complete your collection or upgrade your listening experience.

Editors bestography

The Back Room is ranked as the best album by Editors.

Editors album bestography « Higher ranked
-
This album (1,724th)
The Back Room
Lower ranked (1,756th) »
An End Has A Start

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

Listen to The Back Room on YouTube

Loading content from YouTube...

The Back Room track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 80 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

Sort Sort by

Track pick (1000 - 100 votes) Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.

The Back Room rankings

The Back Room rankings summary
Overall rank: 1,724th | 2000s rank: 275th | 2005 rank: 38th  Overall chart history
(Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). (Last updated: 1 hour ago).

The Back Room collection

The Back Room ratings

Average Rating: 
74/100 (from 253 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 253 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
70/100
 !
06/06/2026 16:06 Exist-en-ciel  Ratings distribution  15,32470/100
 
80/100
 !
06/04/2026 15:08 mids  Ratings distribution  93780/100
 
75/100
 !
04/15/2026 22:37 Liks_on_music  Ratings distribution  65581/100
 
80/100
 !
04/15/2026 19:26 cicadelic  Ratings distribution  13,49073/100
 
85/100
 !
04/04/2026 23:02 alexandermause  Ratings distribution  1,58786/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 17% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 73.9/100, a mean average of 72.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 74.0/100. The standard deviation for this album is 14.8.


Please log in or create an account if you want to be able to leave a rating

The Back Room comments

Showing all 7 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

Rating:  
70/100
From 02/05/2023 01:32 | #293594
Very similar sound and feel right through this. Not that that's bad as you know what you're getting with Editors. It all flows very nicely. Just doesn't vary much.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
55/100
From 01/01/2022 20:38 | #278351
Great band, seem to be continually underrated and overlooked. They sound like Interpol, but better! This is their best album. My highlights are Munich and Bullets. Weakest tracks are Camera and Distance.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | -1 votes (0 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
1. 90
2. 100
3. 100
4. 85
5. 100
6. 65
7. 80
8. 90
9. 60
10. 70
11. 50

As part of the early 2000s post-punk wave, English band Editors take that dark melodic rock sound made famous by bands such as Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen and later Interpol and White Lies, and fully embrace the typical sound of the genre while giving their music a noticeably English touch. Dark and mature themes are mixed with a distinct beat and weeping guitars to form emotional walls of sound. But there's more to this album than simply that. Editors also prove to be able to vary their musical output and offers surprisingly upbeat tracks ("Blood", "All Sparks"), headed by hooky guitar riffs and memorable choruses.

Back Room also largely avoids the usual problem of post-punk records sounding too similar and dragging out unnecessarily by the end. By shifting from raw, energetic tracks like "Fingers in the Factories" to slow, quiet and vulnerable songs such as "Fall", Editors keep the listener engaged throughout the entire LP.

That's not to say there aren't more generic tracks in here. Songs such as "Camera" and "Someone Says" have their moments but disappear into obscurity fairly quickly. Despite their unique touch to the standout songs on the album, there is so much here that is so stereotypical for the genre that the band, unfortunately, doesn't stand out quite as well as some other bands (such as White Lies).
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (2 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
Pretty consistent album. I think it lacks a killer track, but it's nice to listen from start to finish. If you like Interpol you have to check it out

Best tracks: Lights, Munich, All Sparks, Blood, Bullets
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
70/100
Post-punky and melancholic, massive influences from Joy Division and Interpol, but with their own little touch. I used to put 'Blood' on repeat when I was younger, always had a soft spot for that song and I don't really know why.

Key tracks: Blood, Munich, Camera
Key lyric: 'This wicked city just drags you down, you're with the red lights, your side of town.'
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
The wunderkind of the 2005-2007 "indie" burst. Used to get NME as much as I can between those years. These lot had some exceptional singles from this and earned quite the reputation. Sucess was well deserved.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
95/100
This is an incredible album. Every track is top notch. Amazed that this is not rated higher on this site than it is. Interpol would have loved to have made this album!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)

Please log in or create an account if you want to be able to add a comment

Your feedback for The Back Room

Anonymous
What do you think of this album? Leave a comment or rate it below.
The top-voted comments get featured on our charts, Album of the Day, and the site newsletter.
Log in or create an account to rate this album, leave comments and join the discussion.