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Jul 29, 2020 By Christopher Roberts Everything Everything

British art-rockers Everything Everything were releasing a new album, Re-Animator, on August 21 via Infinity Industries/AWAL, but now it’s been pushed back a bit to September 11 because of the pandemic. They have also shared another song from the album, “Violent Sun,” via a video for the track directed by the band’s frontman Jonathan Higgs. The video features each band running with a GoPro camera in hand. Watch it below.

Higgs had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Violent Sun’ is about the feeling that something terrible is approaching fast, and you want to hold on to this moment forever. It’s the last song of the night, and the last song of your life. You only have these four minutes to make it happen, so make it happen!”

The band had this to say about pushing back the album: “We’re sorry to announce that we have to push the Re-Animator release date back a bit to 11th September, due to COVID-related delays. We’re disappointed too, of course, but we now have the opportunity to work on something exciting for around the new release date. Thank you for bearing with us; we can’t wait for you to hear the album in full, we’re really proud of it.”

Read our recent COVID-19 Quarantine Check-In interview with Everything Everything’s Jonathan Higgs.

In April the band shared the album’s “In Birdsong,” via a video for the track that was one of our Songs of the Week. Then when the album was announced they shared “Arch Enemy,” which was also one of our Songs of the Week. Then they shared a strange video for “Arch Enemy.” Then they shared another new song from the album, “Planets,” via a video. “Planets” was also one of our Songs of the Week.

The album was recorded last December at RAK studios in London with producer John Congleton (St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten, David Byrne). Prior to that there was a year of writing and demoing. A press release points out that for this album the band wanted to focus “on harmonies and melodies over synths and programming.”

In terms of lyrical themes, the album tackles “wonderment at the wider world despite the horror of its politics; existentialism and the prolonged, if fading, youthfulness of being in a touring band; and the ominous threat of climate change. All things which contribute to a sense of one door closing while another awaits.”

Frontman Jonathan Higgs also became interested in the theory of the bicameral mind, as put together by psychologist Julian Jaynes. The press release explains the theory: “It argues that early in human evolution, the two sides of the brain were next to each other but functioned independently. In essence, one side would hear the other sending instructions via a disembodied voice—a zombie-like state of pre-consciousness.”

Higgs further expounds: “This idea of the divided self captivated me. Jaynes attributes this to the origin of gods, people ascribing deity status to this voice they could hear in their head. All this blew my mind, and I started thinking of ways I could make this a central concept. It really touched me. So across the whole record there are millions or references to this theory—to having a split brain, two selves, hearing voices.”

Of the new single, Higgs had this to say: “‘Arch Enemy’ sees a modern-day protagonist searching for a meaningful God. Finding only a congregation of greed, toxicity and waste, in the form of a sentient fatberg in the sewer, he duly prays to it, willing it to purge the decadent world above that has created it. These growing grease mountains are a curious juxtaposition of the modern and the ancient; a brand new example of archaic squalor.”

The band features Jonathan Higgs (vocals), Jeremy Pritchard (bass), Michael Spearman (drums), and Alex Robertshaw (guitar). Their last full-length was 2017’s Mercury Prize-nominated A Fever Dream, although they released the Deeper Sea EP in 2018.

Read our 2017 interview with Everything Everything on A Fever Dream.

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