A number of people have tried to turn me onto the group Everything Everything in recent years to no avail. I instantly found them annoying in that “love/hate” way some bands generate as a first impression that stays with you. Their music sounded “interesting”, but in that distracted way whereby the part of my brain that was being engaged wasn’t the music itself but the ideas informing the music. They’re a band that definitely had some great ideas, some flashes of brilliance, some wonderful quirks, judders and ejaculations of ecstatic musicality that showed promise but rarely had they put out a song that pulled all the elements together, that created a sufficient momentum to break free of the gravitational pull of ‘style over substance’.
But now they’ve released the song Distant Past and I love it. They’re still annoying – it doesn’t help that the lead singer looks like Will Young auditioning for a part in Peaky Blinders – but it doesn’t seem to matter this time out. All in all quite a thrilling slice of alternative pop.
I’ve been checking out their stuff on youtube, as they’ve been added to the bill for the Number 6 Festival. I’ve been underwhelmed. And I’m still underwhelmed by this. Sorry. It’s the annoying falsetto, I think.
And while we’re at it – James Bay? Apparently hugely popular. Why?
Ah! James Bay. I listened to one of his songs when it was recommended by someone. My take was that it sounded like Bon Jovi writing a song for Cliff Richard in the 80’s would have sounded. I’m not saying if that’s a good or a bad thing but I think you know!
I can’t get on with them either – bit like a union of Muse and The Darkness and since both of these bands are shite it was never likely to work.
In bed ill with the remnants of a cold so I can’t say anything sensible other than- I love them. Quirky, interesting, tunesome.
Everyone must like ‘Cough Cough’, surely? I wonder if they are a smidge Marmite. I think maybe they get lumped in with Metronomy as being similarly too clever by half but I think EE are the more inventive of the two. Sorry, too knackered to post a clip.
Well, I went and listened to ‘Cough Cough’ again just now. I really wanted to like it – but no, I find it utterly charmless. It just seems busy to no great purpose or groove.
I love them, but I like “odd” voices and I really think it’s mostly down to if you like his voice or not.
Here are two of my favourites from the previous album:
(The Peaks)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4LP_WhyP0Q
(Radiant)
However, I’ve no idea why anyone would volunteer to wear a haircut that looks like a comb-over, as the singer does in the video of the OP…!
Ah, my band! They get better & better with every album, are excellent live & know how to bring the groove whilst stimulating my grey matter.
Excellent song choices Locust, The Peaks is a favourite of mine.
I like em….and was probably one of the people who tried to to “turn you on”!
They’re good, on the surface kind of yer basic 6 Music Indie fodder but there is some substance there….properly twisty turny arty weirdness at their heart which appeals. For example they curated a week of pop-art happenings and ‘interventions’ at Manchester library recently….Mumford & Sons they ain’t.
And by the way….What is that incessant humming??
They’re an odd band. I hear the snippets of all the things that others suggest like Talking Heads and XTC and that should be enough for me but all the time, on every track I’ve heard (and I listen to 6 Music so that’s quite a lot!) the main thing I can hear is Level 42 which I just can’t get past.
Odd, isn’t it, how often our friends are convinced we’ll ‘like’ (or even ‘love’) a band, or a restaurant, or a person that we end up at the least indifferent to and at the most despising. I suppose it’s vanity, that desire not to be predictable that leads us to view with suspicion anything that others believe will be ‘right down our alley.’ More specific to this case, Everything Everything sounds like another one of those bands that wear its influences rather heavily without adding anything (anything) to them.
When I first heard them on Marc Riley’s show I found them massively irritating. Riley played them to death and now I have to admit I like them. Well, some of their stuff. Some of the time. They’re nothing if not original.