Everything Everything 'Get To Heaven' (ALBUM REVIEW)

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’.

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

'Get To Heaven' is released on June 22nd 2015 on RCA

Everything Everything Official