They protest too much?

the thing I've learnt about 'sonically challenging bands who look amazing' is that they're all just buying time until they've amassed enough credibility to actually write pop songs. Songs, big shiny POP SONGS. One of the things I said when I first saw the Horrors was 'give them a few years and they'll be sounding like early Simple Minds'. Cut to 2011 and lo and behold we have this:   

The Horrors' sulky little proteges S.C.U.M., have now followed suit: actually sounding a lot more like all the early 80s Gothy-Post Punk bands they've been dressing like for years:  

I'm not complaining though, this is ultimately a good thing. I've found that people who arrive with a fully-formed pop agenda tend to fail because they're too forced for Pop and too fake to have developed a legitimate fanbase to fall back on. The moral of the story is, I suppose, to resist your pop temptations for as long as possible and when they eventually do consume you (they get everybody in the end) you might actually get away with it.