The fact that this was the opening night of Birmingham's new Academy meant there was already a buzz. There was added excitement because Editors are local boys, having formed while studying at Staffordshire University. But what really made this special was the sense that the band are, with their third album, about to make the breakthrough to the big league.

It was apparent from the first track – In This Light and On This Evening, the song that opens the album and gives it its title – that Editors have dramatically improved since 2007's water-treading second LP. They were always better at the faster anthemic numbers than the slower atmospheric ones. Now they've found a solution to that quandary by introducing synthesizer textures, played by frontman Tom Smith – he of the dolorous baritone – and occasionally by guitarist Chris Urbanowicz and bassist Russell Leetch, and crisp electronic rhythms triggered by superb drummer Ed Lay, create a broader sound palette.

Critics who dismissed them as Joy Division copyists or Interpol's inferior British cousins will now have to be more creative: the oriental synth motif throughout The Boxer recalled experimental New Romantics Japan; Bricks and Mortar had the Euro hauteur of John Foxx-era Ultravox; the keyboard riff that propelled Papillon was as catchy as early Spandau Ballet, only with the brooding ambience of electro-goth – it's no surprise that Flood (Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails) produced the album.

Given the excellence of their new material, it would have been foolish not to base their set around it, and the crowd lapped it up. Their "greatest hits" like Munich and Fingers in the Factories paled in comparison to the powerful, surging You Don't Know Love – a measure of how far they've progressed. The band kept to the shadows, with only Smith taking centre stage when not sitting down with his synths. But they didn't need flamboyant gestures. They had the quiet assurance of a band who know their time has come.

At Fabric, London (0871-971-6513), on September 16, then touring.