More about: Everything Everything
'An album rich in layer upon layer of texture and colour'
“And that eureka moment hits you like a cop car,” shrieks frontman Jonathan Higgs on opening track and breakthrough single ‘Cough Cough’. Pick yourself up off the road - Everything Everything have finally sussed it.
While their Mercury-nominated ‘Man Alive’ was an awesomely awkward and delightfully deranged punch of pop at its most perverse, it suffered only from seeming a little too interested in itself.
This time around, them math-rock Mancunians have let themselves unwind a little.
Single ‘Kemosabe’ seems like a premonition to the day when the machines rise up and master hip hop. Mechanical beats and frenetic vocals underlie a sky-full of chirping sounds in perfect harmony. Everything Everything have found their feet.
‘Torso of the Week’ is a slow-burning beast of slick and sultry R n’ B that shares production qualities with the likes of The Weeknd and Frank Ocean, then things get a whole lot sexier on the Prince-like electro kick of ‘Armourland’.
The unexpected string quartet backing to ‘Duet’ and the title track seem a little out of place at first, but help to paint a fuller picture with a touch of the romantic. Aye, there’s a fairly eclectic mix of sounds across the rest of the record – from the Hispanic guitar of ‘Feet for Hands’ to the Foals-esque skitter of ‘Choice Mountain’.
There’s a fair bit of that ‘Afro-beat’ malarkey that’s going around at the moment too, but rather than using their tight-knit idiosyncrasies to form something sharp and claustrophobic, Everything Everything have expanded their ambitions to for an album rich in layer upon layer of texture and colour.
It’s open, exotic, explosive and artful. “Our new album is like a house,” they told Gigwise last week – yeah, with the doors blown off and a dragon in the bird bath.
“I’m staring through the telescope, hungry,” pines Higgs on the Nintendo 64 adventure of ‘Radiant’. He needn’t look that far – Everything Everything have just brought their future speeding a whole lot closer.
More about: Everything Everything
