Everything I need in new music!
I don’t generally review albums on this blog but I will make an exception this time because:
a) I am incredibly chuffed at what I think is an early call on the first album of an all new band. The band being Everything Everything and the album being Man Alive. It can be checked out on their myspace. http://www.myspace.com/everythingeverythinguk
b)I haven’t had the chance to be excited by an all new band in a very long time.
I will address the second point first and it is the unfortunate baggage of loving ‘classic’ music as a youngster (which however I would not forsake on that behest alone 
). But I have to honestly admit that since growing up on A R Rahman’s music in my schooldays, I have never listened to an all new band and then been excited by it. By all new, I mean simply listening to the first album of a new band as it comes out and not later on. I have always worked backwards in chronology to bands who were purported to have made good or great music and often lived up to that billing. Even with ‘new’ bands! I got to Radiohead, Porcupine Tree or Muse long after they had released their debuts. Whereas I remember Roja coming out and the buzz that began in Tamil Nadu about the hot new talent in town and then digging subsequent scores that lived up, and even on occasion surpassed, to the promise of that soundtrack. And then, one fine day a couple of months back, a proghead on some prog forum spotlighted this band’s singles, saying he found them really exciting and interesting. I checked out and was flabbergasted. We shall get to the reason why. I waited eagerly for the debut album to release and it did not disappoint me when I got to hear it on their myspace. The album is still only a week old in the market and the thought that I may have spotted a band who may become future pop/rock superstars very early in their career gives me some vain sense of satisfaction. Especially considering that I am supposed to be this dinosaur hung up on 70s music…how did I ever get to play spotter? Or maybe I won’t after all!
But I digress, the point is simply that I am looking at some startlingly fresh material here. I would dub them indie mainly for the (atrocious) vocals and some guitar tones but they are like no indie based music I have come across. I hear a level of mastery of form and complexity that evokes, unbelievably, Gentle Giant! Any serious prog fan would tell you there’s precious little in the prog canon that’s more complex than Gentle Giant (though my personal favourite is King Crimson). I am completely at a loss to understand how Everything Everything managed to accommodate that band’s approach in their style of music, which in essence is very, very different, especially because they don’t seem to have cited Gentle Giant as an influence. And yet, I even hear parallels to Gentle Giant’s compositional trademarks. I cannot articulate this any better than saying that at several places in the album, the choices Everything Everything made evoked what Gentle Giant might have done had they handled the same material. I could explain this better by isolating sections of music from either band, playing them on the keyboard and posting them here, shall do that if I manage to find the time and inclination. Either Everything Everything are being sly and concealing a prog influence (because prog is so unfashionable, right!) or, as can happen in music, they have reached the same destination through a different route.
Whatever it is, the pop fluff on the surface belies the sheer adventure in the songwriting. Let’s take MY KZ, UR BF as an exhibit. The intro verse and the keyboard/guitar figure that followed suggested to me that a regular pop track would ensue with the vocal refrain reinforced. Instead, they choose a different verse and go for a hypersyncopated pattern. Immediately, my antennae were on the alert…what’s going on here! It should not be there in the ordinary, generic scheme of things and yet it works superbly! And then, some very Gentle Giant-esque vocal harmonies effect another change of track before the chorus kicks in and we are back to the time signature of the intro figure. All this happens in about a minute or so and I am transported to the 70s by music that essentially sounds nothing like stuff made in that decade. Here again is a band who satiate my need for hooks and grooves while still keeping the hungry analyst that I am on my toes. They are not quite pop perfection but they are damn close for a band on their debut effort. But, thrillingly, they also make unusual choices and explore musical possibilities as they go along, neither getting in the way of the other.
There is also a sense of unabashed abandon in their approach, particularly the way they throw themselves into Photoshop Handsome. Part of the reason pop has lost some of its zing since King Michael’s Bad album is because it has become over-conscious and affected. If you don’t get involved heart and soul in the music, how will the listener? Everything Everything sound heartily irreverent and indifferent to how the audience might perceive their music and immerse themselves with gusto into the songs. QWERTY Finger, Weights, Schoolin’, NASA Is On Your Side, Final Form are other scorching cuts in an album with no bad songs.
I only wish I could say a few kind words about the vocals to round off the gushing. Afraid this kind of singing is not my cup of tea! The singing evokes Phil Collins in places for me, so he’s not totally bad. And surely, the well co-ordinated harmonies are proof of his/their skills. But the delivery is grossly unpleasant and unsuitable for the music. I really don’t understand why regular singing as I understand it could not have been employed here.
But I am not one to pass over the kind of compositional adventure I have longed to hear from the contemporary scene merely on account of vocals and so, I sign off for another round of listening to the album and hoping for them to soon taste some massive success so I can feel really smug about myself! 
