Everything Everything - A Fever Dream (Album Review)
Monday, 21 August 2017
Written by Liam Turner
It wasn't all that long ago that commentary on current affairs was reserved for those who had something to say and knew how to say it. Those days are long gone.
Now, anyone with a guitar in their hands can't help but throw in their two pennies on the latest political upheaval. But we've already reached pseudo-political saturation point. Who wants to hear another half-baked trashing of Trump or bemoaning of Brexit on the latest indie shelf-filler?
If it’s done properly, though, that’s another thing altogether. And Everything Everything do all of that and more on their fourth full-length, ‘A Fever Dream.’
From Trump to Theresa, Brexit to bigotry, it's all here, and it's attacked with an acerbic wit absent in many of the band’s less articulate contemporaries.
“Sing me a song from your dead-eyed scroll/witless and rank as a fat-filled hole,” Jonathan Higgs squawks on the psychotic Big Game. No prizes for guessing who he’s chatting about.
It's almost as if Everything Everything were made for the current political climate. The band possess a knack for delivering an entertaining, twisted vision of a future that uncomfortably straddles the border between fact and fiction. They’re the musical equivalent of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. As 2015’s ‘Get to Heaven’ proved, it's become second nature for them.
It also doesn't hurt that the four piece continue to hone their prog-pop musical abilities to the point of near-mastery. Opener Night of the Long Knives - a reference to Adolf Hitler's 1934 political purge - is a highlight among highlights where subterranean bass bolsters a synth-driven lead, in turn providing a clean, shining canvas for Higgs’ haunting vocal. “Shame about your neighbourhood,” he murmurs, all sincerity wonderfully quashed.
Then there's the piano-led title track. It's slow, plodding and repetitive, but that’s precisely why it’s such a success. It really shouldn't work, but does so brilliantly. In fact, most of what Everything Everything do shouldn't work. Their combination of eccentric vocals, esoteric lyricism and a kitchen-sink mentality to instrumental composition doesn't exactly evoke a Michelin-grade recipe. Yes, their music is very often mad, but by God is there a whole lot of method behind it.
Everything Everything Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Fri September 29 2017 - MARGATE Dreamland
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