Wild Eyed

Despite clocking in at 4:09, this is the shortest track on alternative rock band The Horrors' third album Skying.

The song features a cracked-sounding brass refrain, which repeats several times, sometimes becoming percussive. Synth player Tom Cowan told The Quietus, "We did talk about brass. But listening to hip hop, I really like hearing really great brass samples that are really simple. I never liked brass when it was really in your face and over the top, but there's a tasteful way of doing it, and that's on a few tracks actually, but it has a very emotive sound. It's close to singing."

Guitarist Joshua Hayward added: "I remember bringing in loads of things like hip hop with brass and saying 'Tom, this would be great on guitar.' He said 'Yeah, you need to learn to play a brass instrument.'" (laughs)

The brass comes from several different sources including a six piece section led by trumpeter Derek Watkins, who once played with The Beatles. Cowan explained to The Quietus: "Some of it is sampled, some of it is live, and some of it is on mellotron. It was just a real mishmash of stuff. The live stuff was great. It was great to see if we could do it. We had some of the world's finest trumpet players playing parts we'd been playing on keyboards."