The Back Room is the debut studio album of British rock band Editors; it was released on 25 July 2005 through Kitchenware Records.

After signing to Kitchenware in late 2004, the band recorded their debut album at studios in Lincolnshire, London and Wolverhampton.

The Back Room is a post-punk revival, gothic rock and indie pop album that has been compared to the works of Echo & the Bunnymen, Elbow and Interpol.

The Back Room received generally positive reviews from music critics; opinions on the Editors' influences and the lyrics were divided but frontman Tom Smith's vocals were well-received.

The Back Room was nominated for the 2006 Mercury Prize, and was later certified platinum in the UK, and gold in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands.

[1][2] Urbanowicz said he had grown tired of guitar-centric music following Britpop and that the members bonded over their love of Is This It (2001) by The Strokes and Asleep in the Back (2001) by Elbow.

[6] musicOMH writer David Turnbull said The Back Room is "characterised by thick, prominent basslines, insistent drums, twinkling guitar and a baritone voice".

[11] On "Lights", the album's opening track, the guitarwork switches from strummed jangling to single picked notes, which are enhanced by reverb, evoking the style of the Edge from U2.

[18] During the up-tempo track "Fingers in the Factories", which talks about being working class, the vocals, guitars and drums synchronise for staccato notes.

[19][12] "Bullets", which recalls the early work of U2, refers to periods in a person's life when situations go awry, including the aftermath of a break-up and unemployment.

[27][28] "Blood" was released as the album's third single on 11 July 2005; the seven-inch vinyl version includes "Forest Fire" as its B-side.

[29][30] Two versions were released on CD: the first with "Heads in Bags" and a remix of "Blood" by the Freelance Hellraiser, and the second with "Let Your Good Heart Lead You Home".

[18] Nick Southall of Stylus Magazine said its artwork is reminiscent of the cover of Turn On the Bright Lights (2002) by Interpol, "only darker, more monochrome".

[44][45] Two versions were released on CD; the first with "French Disko" and the second with "Find Yourself a Safe Place", a remix of "Munich" and the music video for it, which Mark Thomas directed.

[50][51] Two versions were released on CD; the first with "The Diplomat" and the second includes "From the Outside", and a remix of "All Sparks" and its music video, which Lee Lennox directed.

[48][54][55] In May and June 2006, Editors played a short Ireland-and-UK tour, which ended with a three-date residency at Brixton Academy, London.

[54] After an appearance at T in the Park, they went on another US tour in July and August 2006, and then performed at Jersey Live Festival in the Channel Islands in September 2006.

"[75] Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone said, however, Smith tends to get "lost in his own gloom-addled mind" while trying to change lyrical direction from a negative to a positive one, and arrives at something between the two.

[19][76] According to Turnbull, others were criticising the album's lack of "lyrical dexterity"; he also said Smith would occasionally use "clumsily teenage blotches" such as those in "Camera".

[77] Sputnikmusic staff member DaveyBoy likened Smith's voice to an instrument, which he said is "able to sound sophisticated one moment and anguished the next".

[10] Reviewers had divided opinions on Editors' influences from 1980s acts and comparisons to their contemporaries; some ignored these and called the band's music original.

The Irish Times' Sinéad Gleeson wrote the band "plough the same furrow of guitar-flecked morbidity" as Joy Division "but with pop firmly at their heart".

[17] Burns considered Editors to be Interpol-soundalikes because they "thrive with tight technique but is missing the darkness and depth of ardor";[19] Michael Lomas of PopMatters said these comparisons came across as lazy but that "listening to The Back Room, they are undeniable".

[78] Pitchfork writer Jason Crock said Editors frequently "imitate bands with dramatic vocalists ... but the best moments on The Back Room aren't the theatrical ones—it's when the four of them are playing and discovering their own chemistry".

[12] According to Gleeson, compared to several other acts who were "currently plundering '80s music like a supermarket trolley dash, Editors do it with far more imagination while hawking their own sound".