There
has been a lot of drumming of fingers within Manchester for the past
decade or so, the populous awaiting the next great guitar band to
explode out from what had become quite a production line, stretching
back to the punk era but seeming to peter out at the end of the
1990s. Cue
possible contenders, Mancunian based quartet ‘Everything Everything’, their falsetto-armed frontman’s vocal frantically
wrapping itself around hyper dense math rock. For those not familiar
with the term, think of a Radiohead
album played at 45rpm.
Needless to say, EE have seemingly leapfrogged the ‘difficult third album hurdle’ as ‘Get to Heaven’ hits the shelves barely 30 months after its predecessor….not forgetting these guys have already stroked the chins of many critics with debut ‘Man Alive’ making the Mercury shortlist and follow-up ‘Arc’ the latter producing the Ivor Novello nomination with ‘Kemosabe’.
Needless to say, EE have seemingly leapfrogged the ‘difficult third album hurdle’ as ‘Get to Heaven’ hits the shelves barely 30 months after its predecessor….not forgetting these guys have already stroked the chins of many critics with debut ‘Man Alive’ making the Mercury shortlist and follow-up ‘Arc’ the latter producing the Ivor Novello nomination with ‘Kemosabe’.
Their
new release is eagerly anticipated too, judging by the reaction to
the two lead-off singles. Firstly there’s the sun soaked festival
smash in waiting ‘Distant Past’, frenetic in verse and anthemic
in chorus as big slabs of house keyboards combine with Michael
Spearman’s furious percussion to hedonistic effect. Clubs right
across the Mediterranean will be reverberating to remixes of this
track all summer. Next we have 60’s throwback ‘Regret’, a
cracking slice of urgent water-tight R&B that wouldn’t sound
out of place on a Motown compilation, evidence of these guys
continuing experimentation with styles, the sound suddenly becoming
much starker, Alex Robertshaw’s guitar and Jeremy Pritchard’s
bass suddenly sharing centre stage.
On
listening to the rest of ‘Get to Heaven’ one notes how properly
pop it sounds in places. Title track, together with
‘Spring/Sun/Winter/Dread’ are both drenched with infectious
melody, the former even including whistling as by now listener is
forced to put on some factor 50. ‘The
Wheel (Is Turning Now)’ continues the vein of earlier tracks making
one think of the ‘Quiet/Loud’ nature of grunge, perhaps here
replaced with ‘Skittish/Melodic’ although the second half of the
song introduces us to the album’s first real moment of
introspection, leading us into to some of the record’s darker
moments. These include the ethereal ‘Fortune 500’ as we’re then
saved from the abyss by ‘Blast Doors’. The moody, clubby ‘Zero
Pharoah’ seems perfectly matched for strobe lighting and ‘No
Reptiles’ and ‘Warm Healer’ slowly complete the road to
recovery them as we once more enter the light.
Is the pre-match
excitement justified? I think it might be.
Words - Mike Price
Everything Everything Official