Everything Everything - "RE-ANIMATOR" (2020)

 

Everything Everything have grown to be one of my favourite bands of the 2010s. Their maximalist and progressive approach to making pop and rock music has consistently produced wholly enjoyable albums, with 2015's basically flawless Get To Heaven being being the crowning jewel in their discography. The accompaniment of Jonathon Higgs' socio-political lyrics taken to their logical extremes, and super eccentric instrumentation and hooks make the band so ear grabbing to me. However, the band has taken a slight change of course with their 5th record that does make it stand out on it's own in their collection.

The band has made a deliberate attempt to shift their lyrical focus away from politics and society, towards the more abstract ideas surrounding the human condition: the development of consciousness, ideas of supernatural fear, enemies, desire, and tribalism. The opening lyric is "I did what anybody would that day, No speechless gibbon in the road, Not me" and sets up the tone of the record perfectly. To accompany the more cerebral themes, the instrumentation has been toned down. These tracks are far less over the top and manic, and feel simpler and more stark. I understand that it will be a turn off to some fans, as singing along to some batshit lyrics to a super fun poppy groove is a big part of the band's appeal; and even the singles from the record aren't particularly catchy in that way. But for me, the more minimalist approach is a nice change of pace that allows the more conceptual themes room to breathe and sink in.

The opener, Lost Powers, sounds like the grand awakening the opening lyric suggests. The simple chiming guitar and drums slowly give way to more elaborate instrumentation. It sounds like some kind of daybreak as the world slowly becomes more illuminated. Big Climb tackles the uncontrollable desire for excess that seems to drive so many people, backed by a more aggressive glitchy beat and harsher more staccato vocals from Higgs. It Was A Monstering and Moonlight are about as straight up Radiohead-worship as the band has ever been (and the last record, A Fever Dream, had some very Radiohead-y moments), and the first of those is actually a pretty good attempt. The krautrock-ian, rigid drums and dark, hollow guitar tones would fit in perfectly on Amnesiac. Higgs even does a really good Thom Yorke impersonation. The descending guitar lines and sinister hook melody are really good. I especially like the switched up bridge of the track. It's a really well constructed song, even if it's influences are obvious. Moonlight, on the other hand calls back to some of the more serene Radiohead ballads such as Nude. Its not bad, but doesn't quite come together into something particularly distinct for me.

The middle of the record is where it goes on its biggest run, starting with the single Arch Enemy. This track is about as close as the record comes to the band's big pop singles of the past, with its squelchy synth-funk groove and bizarre lyrics comparing an enemy to a fatberg that attaches itself to you. It is the wackiest and most fun song on the album. Lord of the Trapdoor focuses around the ideas of tribalism and 'otherness', built around a really simple and stripped back beat and stark, chiming guitar which just descends into a ferocious, heavily distorted guitar solo that tears up the back half of the song as the track falls into madness. The beat on the following song, Black Hyena, is this super snappy and prangy loop that sounds like something you'd find on a Massive Attack album which gives the song a unique flavour within the EE discography. The lyrics are really sinister, seemingly alluding to personality changes following perhaps brain damage, or maybe just a traumatic event in general - they're pretty abstract.

However, RE-ANIMATOR is certainly the least consistent record since the group's debut. Early on in the record, the single Planets is the first sign of trouble. The track is perfectly listenable, but feels like a one trick pony with its long, slow-burn verses that slowly build up through the chorus towards a spiralling post-chorus synth line. It's the only thing the track has up it's sleeve and it gets old fast. Towards the end of the album, the songs In Birdsong and The Actor also have some crippling flaws that ruin the entire tracks for me. In Birdsong is a linear, building ballad that sounds ethereal and profound; and the track at the core of it is fairly good. But as the track builds in intensity and volume, the entire mix becomes more and more tinny and compressed. It's obviously an intentional artistic choice, but it sounds really unbearable. Likewise, on The Actor, the group go so completely overboard on the reversed vocal effects that it's incredibly distracting and kills any enjoyment I might've got from an already not that impressive song.

The band do save the best cut on the record for last, being the blistering new wave throwback of Violent Sun. The pummelling drums, whining guitar leads, and overwhelming vocal delivery just commands you to feel something. It's really good, and really powerful with the simple message of  'it's okay to feel like you don't understand, or that the world is overwhelmingly confusing and scary'.

RE-ANIMATOR is a good album, if slightly underwhelming when compared to Arc, A Fever Dream, and especially Get To Heaven. I appreciate that the band took risks with their sound, and when the play out, they result in some really good songs. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, especially if you came to the band for their whacky, up-tempo singles. It's certainly an album which grew on me with time though, so don't just write it off on first listen.

Top Tracks: Lost Powers, It Was A Monstering, Arch Enemy, Lord Of The Trapdoor, Black Hyena, Violent Sun

7/10

Declan McKenna - "Zeros" (2020)

 

Declan McKenna burst onto the UK indie scene back in the mid 2010s after winning the 2015 Glastonbury's Emerging Talent competition at the age of just 16, releasing his debut record, What Do You Think Of The Car? a couple of years later in 2017. That record was a perfectly fine, if run of the mill, indie rock album tinged with some existential and political writing that showed some promise (the big single Brazil is genuinely a great indie rock song).

I only began to pay more attention to McKenna last year when he released the non-album single, British Bombs; a protest song about the war in Yemen that sounds straight out of The Clash's London Calling. It's a really great song. That song was followed up by the lead single for this album, Beautiful Faces. The song is the stomping mix of indie rock and glam with a souring otherworldly chorus. The noisy, rough guitar tones; thunderous drumming and whining synths create this raucous and alien atmosphere for Declan's existential vocals to glide over. It's a toss up between these two tracks as to which is the best song McKenna has written but it's one of them for sure.

The mash up of indie rock and glam on Beautiful Faces is carried throughout the whole of Zeros, in a generally entertaining, if messy and disjointed, way. The opener, You Better Believe!!!, starts as a jovial indie rock song with a breezy guitar melody before gaining more and more swagger as the track progresses. The existentialism seeps in as McKenna howls "We're gonna get ourselves killed!" on the bridge. It's such a feel good opener to the record and seems ready made for festival stages. Daniel, You're Still a Child has chunky, new wave groove to it that combines with the glam elements nicely. Declan uses the character of Daniel, who crops up on various points of the album, to voice the themes of teenage nihilism and existential dread; and how you've just got to enjoy yourself at a personal level, despite how terrible the world you're growing up into might seem.

The album is at its weakest when its at its most derivative.The tracks Be an Astronaut and The Key to Life on Earth are so obvious Bowie pastiches. They aren't bad songs but they feel like pale imitations of Bowie's sound and style. Be an Astronaut is a dramatic piano led song akin to the likes of Space Odyssey and Life On Mars, but is no where near as wondrous and whimsical as those classics, or as catchy. The Key to Life on Earth opens with these wobbly synths that sound exactly like the ones on Ashes to Ashes. It's distractingly similar, and the lyrics are also some of the weakest on the record. Declan plays up the teenage drama a bit too much, and is really trying to sell things like not liking school and teen fashion trends as deep, and it doesn't work for me really.

The back half of the record consists of messy but intriguing tracks, that introduce so many ideas and elements that they never quite settle into knowing what are. The track Emily for instance, starts as this twangy folk song, but from the second verse turns into a 'bleepy-bloopy' synth tune, before an admittedly killer guitar solo closes out the song. The song just doesn't know what it is. It is the most egregious example of this lack of cohesion, but it does permeate into other tracks on the second half. They all have good qualities to them (Rapture has super glam-y falsetto hook; and the simple, minimal verses of Sagittarius A* are a nice change of pace), but they don't quite come together into a particularly memorable whole. Twice Your Size is the only song from the second half that feels like a focused, complete experience, and it's one of the better tracks on the album. The very 70's synth tones and jangly guitar combine with McKenna's yelpy vocals to make something slightly psychedelic and woozy, climaxing to a wall of sound at the end of the song.

Zeros feels like the kind of transitional album for an artist still in development (hes only 21), but an ambitious and interesting one, even if it doesn't always hit the mark. McKenna's personality is also strong enough to carry the album when it's ideas don't quite land, meaning it never drags. It's solid but only touches upon something greater in a couple of places.

Top Tracks: You Better Believe!!!, Beautiful Faces, Daniel, You're Still A Child, Twice Your Size

6/10

Biffy Clyro - "A Celebration Of Endings" (2020)

Biffy Clyro have consistently put out decent records since their 2002 debut, even though they only really touched greatness with the consecutive releases of Puzzle and Only Revolutions in the late 2000s. A Celebration Of Endings very much follows in that path, being another really solid, enjoyable record of Biffy doing what Biffy do. It's completely what you would expect from a Biffy record, but it's still a great time regardless.

I was initially a little worried as two of the four teaser singles really didn't do anything for me at all. These two tracks, Instant History and Tiny Indoor Fireworks, felt like the band had succumbed to the most tired of pop rock tropes; which I didn't get as the band have done pop rock brilliantly in the past (tracks like Howl and Bubbles just to name a couple). Instant History comes straight out of that Imagine Dragons style of faux-epic, genreless nothing music and I have no idea why the band decided to try and make a song like this. It's not the worst that this type of music has to offer, but it's a really bland and simple song that has no depth at all. The guitars are mixed slightly higher on the album version which makes the track slightly better I guess. Tiny Indoor Fireworks sounds like 2000s power pop perfect for a trashy teen movie, and the tune at the core of it is pretty decent; but the track is plastered with these garish, annoying whoops and heys and it completely overwhelms any of the good elements of the track.

The other two teasers, on the other hand, are the best tracks on the record. Weird Leisure is classic Biffy, being a super heavy and off kilter but also super melodic and anthemic at the same time. The verses have this massive syncopation in the time signature which give the song a really ear-grabbing bounce to it. The song is about one of singer Simon Neil's friend's cocaine addiction, and has some really scathing yet honest lyrics in it. "You focus on others and just pick apart their dreams / It's fucking mean" is one of the most brutal. Yet the song comes full circle, detailing that this guy recovered and elaborating that Simon (or anyone else) could easily fall into the same trap. End Of is straight up, simple post-hardcore thrashing and it is so cathartic and relentless - it's great. The track details the fractured relationship between the band and someone they used to work with, and just doesn't hold back lyrically or sonically.

The opening and closing tracks are also high points on the record. North Of No South, the opener, gives a uniquely Scottish perspective on the UK leaving the EU. "You had a choice and you chose to believe it" Simon anthemically howls over loud triumphant guitars and soaring backing vocals. Cop Syrup is the heaviest and least 'pop' song here. Simon literally screams "fuck everybody, wooo!" over and over, on top of super heavy instrumentation. But in the middle of the track there is an extended orchestral section that sounds really great. The song closes out the record at its most massive and epic. The Pink Limit is also a pretty good track on the record. It has a manic energy to it as the band just go wild. The drumming on the track is thunderous, and the guitars are hectic and sporadic.

The other tracks on the record aren't that bad in comparison to the best moments, but generally follow the Biffy formula to varying results. The Champ has a kitchen sink mentality which means it never really settles. It starts as a dramatic piano and strings type song, before shifting into a more standard pop rock sound from the second verse. Then there's an emo-ish downtuned bridge that comes completely out of nowhere and then its back to the pop rock for the climax of the song. Its very all over the place. Opaque tackles the theme of betrayal by a close friend much like End Of, although in the form of a slow acoustic song. It's a very genuine and sincere song, but sounds exactly like slow acoustic songs in the band's back catalogue. If you've heard Machines, you've heard this. Worst Type Of Best Possible sounds straight out of Puzzle, although doesn't quite stack up to the songs on that album in terms of quality. It's a fine song, but one we've heard Biffy do better before. The last track to mention is Space, which is the most run of the mill alt-rock, string laden, power ballad. It's inoffensive but completely uninteresting to me.

A Celebration Of Endings is another solid album from Biffy. It's not their strongest offering, but the fact that no other band really sounds like them means it's still really enjoyable to me. Aside from a couple of hiccups, it's just Biffy doing what Biffy do, and it still works.

Top Tracks: North Of No South, Weird Leisure, End Of, The Pinkest Limit, Cop Syrup

7/10