I think we need a thread about Everything Everythings new album, Arc.
I thought the last one was pretty cool, interesting ideas etc, but this is something else. First genuine contender for album of the year me thinks. Kind of reminds me in terms of the leap (both stylistic and in terms of quality) that Muse took in between Showbiz and Origin Of Symmetry. The songs are clearly a lot bigger, and have much more focus, but still retain the weirdness that make them appeal in the first place. The singles, Cough Cough and Kemosabe, are pure pop gold and quite rightly have elevated the bands profile recently (the former actually reached the top 40 in October). Duet is a better Coldplay/Arcade Fire song than either band has written since their careers began. The likes of Don't Try and Undrowned are also personal highlights.
So yeah, after having it on repeat for 2 days straight, I can definitely say its pretty ace. Anyone else given it a listen? Thoughts?
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I just listened to this today
It was much better than their first album, much bigger and quite a bit bolder as well. Fun stuff.
a 6/10 album, for me.
Like the two singles, and one other track (This House Is Dust?), but the rest of it's quite throwaway.
They're an interesting band, but a singles band, imho. Listening to them over a whole album can be a grating experience.
Think I prefer Dutch Uncles
I do too
But only in as much as I really like them both and Dutch Uncles just edge it.
I found Dutch Uncles lack the sense of humour/fun that let me enjoy EE
I thought DU seemed more fun live.
not to mention the songs
:/
Dutch Uncles
Hot Chip tribute act.
Not Chip
three listens in
all the tracks you mention are cracking but its overall it's not quite weird enough for me, they have toned down some of the spazziness and that's what i enjoyed most about them
DIZZYING!
I enjoyed the first album, but didn't listen to it much after the first couple of months...
When Cough Cough came out, it was almost like they'd become a parody of themselves.... Part of me really wants to like them, but that vital spark just doesn't seem to be there with the new stuff. I don't know, I get the impression that they have to try really hard to make their music and there's something desperately unappealing about that... It seems like that falsetto is a real strain for him and doesn't come very naturally. Does this make any sense or am I just rambling...?
To be honest I'd say thats more the case with the first album
This one feels a lot more natural in terms of songwriting. I quite like how his voice strains a bit sometimes, it makes it feel more powerful tbh. I do see where you're coming from though.
really dont like the lead singers face
or his voice really
To me they're like a band whose sound has been decided by committee to me.
It's as if the past six years of 'hip' sounds have been focus-grouped into one personality-less mush.
to you?
alright Barry?
not bad paul
Photoshop Handsome
is one of the most irritating songs ever written. This seems ok so far.
For me the definition of an 8/10 album
Pretty much agree with everything the OP says, but feel a few of the ballads that aren't Undrowned (anyone else hear True Love Waits somewhere in that) drag a bit, and could have been swapped for songs like the first two. Also the last song should swap with the one before it.
Absolutely agree about the last two songs.
Don't Try is a damn fine song but The Peaks really should have ended the album; that rising organ, those plaintive, unembelished cries and the breathtaking last 'tell me my world is gone' before dropping out.
Yeah
The Peaks is pretty much the standout for meat the moment, would have been ace as a closer.
*me at
Pre-ordered it, but it doesn't seem like it'll ever actually arrive.
Glad to hear some good responses, though.
Would've put Everything Everything down as a band to do a crap second album and then disappear
But after a few listens I'm enjoying this.
see Miike Snow
Number 3 in midweeks apparently.
Impressive stuff :)
they seem to have some heavy promotion behind them
ads all over the place, on a lot of radio shows, coldplay tweeted kemosabe saying check out this band (9 million followers!)... bit surreal
Yes
the label seem to be pumping a shitload of cash into this one. Bit weird considering they're a fairly strange sounding band in the most part.
The reason is Alt-J.
Cough Cough
was a big breakthrough single, charted really highly for a few weeks. and also what sheeldz says.
Even P4K seem to have got behind them this time...
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17540-arc/
Pretty impressive considering their first album got a ridiculously low 3.8...
So technically, Arc is twice as good?
I do actually like it a lot more than their first.
Laura Snapes reviewed it, she's more or less taken over
reviews of British albums and she's always loved them. So it's not quite a case of Pitchfork as an entire entity choosing to like them. The review reads as a higher score though.
I thought scores were decided by Pitchfork staff
rather than one reviewer? And Laura Snapes wrote the Alt-j review too, which got 4.0.
He's not saying she rates all british stuff highly
Also I can imagine EE being a very british kind of thing that wouldn't translate well to the US, particularly the vocals
great band
new LP hasn't grabbed as quickly as the last one did, yet.
Flipping terrible...
Feet for Hands is a tune
Sounds like...
Blue covering fucking Foals songs after they'd listened to the last Q and Not U album 3 times...
Snapes likes them because she loves Foals, which kind of discredits her opinion as far as I'm concerned (even though I completely agree with her about a lot of other things, she certainly quivers over the National and Foals a little too much).
That's not why I like EE. Not sure I've ever quivered over Foals, lovely an image as that is. Cheers!
It's good.
But it's not as good as the first. They've gone and gone all serious and lost the fun and playfulness for the most part. Having said that, I've probably listened to this more than owt else so far in january....
It's better than the new Foals album
(On first listen of the latter)
Release date of Holy Fire 11th February.
Tut tut.
improving with every listen
agree with KiK though, best in small doses
All this praise
is making me tempted to revisit their debut and play though both albums properly. If only I can get over my bizarre perception of this band. Photoshop Handsome really killed them for me when it came out, that opening line was just so irksome.
probably the worst song on the first lp
Am I going to have to listen to this
or can I trust my hunch that it's an unremarkable piece of guff?
I'd say it depends entirely
on whether you're genuinely open to being surprised by what it has to offer or if you're going to let your current assumption prejudice listening to it.
I think it's a genuinely good album with some extremely good songs on it. It's not going to bother any 'greatest albums of 2010-20' lists, but it's a sign of a quirky, willfully difficult band maturing into something worth watching.
Well, maybe I'll give it a spin
But this better not be a trick.
I think this is a poor album.
They chuck everything at the wall to disguise the fact that they've got very few original ideas. The songs are cliched- the emo-ish one! The dancey one! The sad one!- and the lyrics are often dreadful.
It's got all the same problems as the debut, but none of the quirky charm and sense of four lads dicking around which won me over.
That said, I did come away humming 'Cough Cough'...
On my forth listen...
I cannot help but zone-out around duet.
This really is coming from a standpoint of absolutely adoring the first album, as it really did break boundaries etc blahblah.
I'm trying, but they've kind of lost their flare. Repeatedly saying 'what you wrestling with' is a far departure from the flamboyance of the debut. Maybe they just want someone to able to song along live...
This album bores me to tears
Only song of theirs I remember enjoying from the first album was Suffragette Suffragette (that riff is great). Baffles me as to why so many people love them, especially with his voice.
probably because people think 'lots going on'= 'lots to say'
when the reverse is more often the case.
Sorry, but in EE’s case this is bare nonsense.
Have you listened to the lyrics at all? Tons of funny and witty and heartbreaking moments - it’s a goldmine.
this music is horrible
after
listening to this for about a week and a half its grown and grown on me.
Their first album had some fantastic songs on it but also some crap. Theres far less of the crap on this one, even if they have toned the mentalness down.
Still not keen on Kemosabe though, sounds like it was cynically aimed straight at radio 1 daytime playlist. The chorus sounds like any number of crap pop acts, the bridge is lovely though.
really?
how can you say that about Kemosabe and NOT Armourland?
Kemosabe is the only one I really like!
Well
the chorus really grates on me for some reason and that 'at the border, at the at the border' part kind of sounds like Flight of the Concords too.
This might as well be the rolling EE thread
Great Interview in The Quietus today, apparently MY KZ, UR BF is about American foreign policy?? But it explains a lot of the shift away from Man Alive.
put the link in you idiot
http://thequietus.com/articles/11232-everything-everything-interview-arc