Following the release of second single ‘Regret’ in the not too distant past, and a sell out stop at Exeter’s Phoenix, Holly Fraser reviews the third studio album from Manchester indie rock quartet Everything Everything, Get To Heaven.
Everything Everything
Get To Heaven
RCA, 22 June 2015
[dropcap size=small]B[/dropcap]ounding back to our earphones this June with their third studio album Get To Heaven, dystopic attention-deficit “art rockers” Everything Everything treat us to another capricious album, as unpredictable and creative as their last two releases.
Delivering the same apocalyptic spunk as Man Alive and Arc, this latest release combines Jonathan Higgs’ characteristic falsetto with a harsh comedown of despair. It’s difficult to write about Everything Everything without standing on the same extreme syntax employed in the band’s lyricism; Everything Everything have earnt a reputation for exciting their listeners with immediate, complicated imagery, interspersing saturated political commentary in this newest release with lines such as “I know the ways I have been a slave / I am prepared to take you by the throat” (‘Fortune 500’) with sardonic dross such as “Let me grab a latte / ooohoohooh” (‘Only As Good As My God’).
“The album flows from one soundscape to another like a jarring tube commute”
The album flows like its two predecessors; completely unpredictably, shunting you from one soundscape to another like a jarring tube commute. Everything Everything have recognisable motifs of discordant social commentary, but this album in particular paints terrorism, ISIS, bomb threats and general societal disorder as a guttural, cryptic picture of discordant society that the listener uncomfortably faces like a cracked mirror. The disjointed, unpredictable natures of each track – a typical Everything Everything watermark – are representative of the band’s mission to disband this societal era of technology dependent, stimulus bypassing and addicting zombie-esque recreation: “Just keep on rubbernecking yeah whatever feels familiar / I could send my brain on a holiday forever” (Blast Doors).
However, the band’s unpredictable soundscapes have conversely made Everything Everything a band that have produced an arguably consistent sound for their past three albums; Get to Heaven is cohesive with this template, as it continues to rouse and provoke random musical triggers and associations from various listeners. The Guardian have pigeonholed the Mancunian quartet as “a Radiohead you can dance to” while Pitchfork made allusions to the band’s individuality echoing Sigur Rós. Even ‘President Heartbeat’ from their newest release includes guitarist Alex Robertshaw executing riffs that are almost reminiscent of Johnny Marr or Dire Straits.
Get To Heaven improves with every listen. The album is consistent enough with the band’s previous work but controversial and fresh enough to deflect stagnancy and avoid audience apathy, Everything Everything continue to elicit intrigue at the same time as delivering their familiar, haphazard motifs that have garnered them an eager, loyal fanbase.
Holly Fraser