Post by Mr Tein on Jun 19, 2015 10:48:15 GMT
A band of great talent release their new album on Monday. Here is a review which has some different words to describe XTC
Is there a more improbable bromance in modern rock than that between the compilers of the Radio 1 playlist and Everything Everything? After all, despite their stated aim to make music that doesn’t “sound like a lot of things you’ve heard before” and their talk about the influence contemporary R&B exerts upon them, Everything Everything exist in an eccentric, very British musical tradition. You could trace the lineage of their cluttered, fidgety sound back through the Cardiacs’ lonely attempt to introduce tricky time signatures and shrill vocals into 80s indie; via XTC in their early, bug-eyed, herky-jerky incarnation; to progressive rock: listeners of a certain vintage and inclination may find that Everything Everything’s music occasionally reminds them of Yes circa 1980’s Drama, on which the ailing prog titans enlisted Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of Buggles to give them a contemporary overhaul.
More on this topicEverything Everything review – high-pitched frenetic pop genius
All this, it scarcely needs pointing out, makes them improbable bedfellows for Jason Derulo and Jess Glynne on the airwaves of the Nation’s Favourite. And yet, there they are. For a fortnight in 2013, their single Kemosabe wasn’t just played on Radio 1, it was the most played record on the station, despite its twitchy rhythms, knotty guitar riffs and vocals that kept leaping into a pained falsetto while delivering imponderable lyrics: “What’s a trilobite to anyone?” Earlier this year, Distant Past, the first single from this third album, followed it on to the A-list. It was presumably the only record one heard interrupting the unfailing hilarity of Bamboleo Wednesday and Innuendo Bingo on the Scott Mills show to feature a lyrical reference to Crom, a deity from Robert E Howard’s sagas of the Hyborian Age.
The mention of a God worshipped by Conan the Barbarian notwithstanding, Distant Past sounded marginally less out of place on Radio 1’s A list than its predecessor: the guitars shimmer atmospherically rather than contort around a byzantine math rock-influenced riff, the chorus stirs a vogueish rave breakdown into the sonic mix. Perhaps it – and indeed the presence behind the mixing desk of Stuart Price, producer by appointment to Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Take That – indicates a fresh, commercially inclined approach on their third album. Or perhaps not.
Is there a more improbable bromance in modern rock than that between the compilers of the Radio 1 playlist and Everything Everything? After all, despite their stated aim to make music that doesn’t “sound like a lot of things you’ve heard before” and their talk about the influence contemporary R&B exerts upon them, Everything Everything exist in an eccentric, very British musical tradition. You could trace the lineage of their cluttered, fidgety sound back through the Cardiacs’ lonely attempt to introduce tricky time signatures and shrill vocals into 80s indie; via XTC in their early, bug-eyed, herky-jerky incarnation; to progressive rock: listeners of a certain vintage and inclination may find that Everything Everything’s music occasionally reminds them of Yes circa 1980’s Drama, on which the ailing prog titans enlisted Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes of Buggles to give them a contemporary overhaul.
More on this topicEverything Everything review – high-pitched frenetic pop genius
All this, it scarcely needs pointing out, makes them improbable bedfellows for Jason Derulo and Jess Glynne on the airwaves of the Nation’s Favourite. And yet, there they are. For a fortnight in 2013, their single Kemosabe wasn’t just played on Radio 1, it was the most played record on the station, despite its twitchy rhythms, knotty guitar riffs and vocals that kept leaping into a pained falsetto while delivering imponderable lyrics: “What’s a trilobite to anyone?” Earlier this year, Distant Past, the first single from this third album, followed it on to the A-list. It was presumably the only record one heard interrupting the unfailing hilarity of Bamboleo Wednesday and Innuendo Bingo on the Scott Mills show to feature a lyrical reference to Crom, a deity from Robert E Howard’s sagas of the Hyborian Age.
The mention of a God worshipped by Conan the Barbarian notwithstanding, Distant Past sounded marginally less out of place on Radio 1’s A list than its predecessor: the guitars shimmer atmospherically rather than contort around a byzantine math rock-influenced riff, the chorus stirs a vogueish rave breakdown into the sonic mix. Perhaps it – and indeed the presence behind the mixing desk of Stuart Price, producer by appointment to Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Take That – indicates a fresh, commercially inclined approach on their third album. Or perhaps not.