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Aug 18, 2017 Everything Everything By Scott Dransfield

U.K. art-pop quartet Everything Everything rightfully gained plenty of attention in 2015 for their bombastic third album Get to Heaven. It easily highlighted everything great about the band: propulsive dance grooves, quirky and creative instrumentation and chord progression, cleverly cutting lyrics, and frontman Jonathan Higgs’ powerful, unique vocals. Most importantly, it solidified an evolution from the group’s nervy math-punk beginnings, a growth that is readily apparent on the new album, A Fever Dream. Rather than change their sound further, on their fourth album, Everything Everything refine and enhance the qualities that already make them the most interesting band in the U.K. rock scene.

Blasting out of the gate with the furious “Night of the Long Knives,” Higgs and company waste no time laying out the anxiety and horror of modern living and setting it all ablaze. In fact, on song after song, Everything Everything are more adept than most at translating the uniquely enveloping quality of current political dread to song. Rampant nationalism, always-on news cycles, and a prevalence of “us v. them” thinking are just some of the topics skewered with poetic clarity on A Fever Dream. A number of songs are even presented from the point of view of the villain, like the dynamic, beautiful title track: “I hate the neighbors/They hate me too/The fear and the fury/Make me feel good.”

A Fever Dream contains not just the most focused, polished songwriting of the band’s career, but also some tender, sincere balladry, a new look for them. Almost half of the tracks here are slower and more thoughtful than the majority of the group’s output, and it’s to their credit that not one of them is uninteresting or forced. In particular, the central tracks “Put Me Together” and “A Fever Dream” are affecting and emotional. This is the best front-to-back album that Everything Everything has yet crafted, a cathartic, exciting art-pop record that resonates in the brain, heart, and tapping toes.

(www.everything-everything.co.uk)

Author rating: 8.5/10