Everything Everything
Man Alive

Do you want a debut with a bang? Then you no longer need to strain your fingertips on the mouse.

Take the reckless and energetic flair of the best Bloc Party, add a warm electronic power-pop setup, and frame it all in disco fashion. The four guys from Manchester are all of this and much more. Geffen, who had foresight, signed them and I believe they are still amazed by the craftsmanship of this album, far exceeding the rosiest expectations.

Immediately noticeable is their remarkable ability to create real hits, tracks we soon can't do without. At the same time, the songs on this record are intricate compositions, complex in every nuance.

Let's be clear, they won't please everyone, they're not mainstream hits; they are indeed alienating and elusive. A jumble of Escher-like architectures transposed into music with geometric order, turned into an appealing and original product. You need to have a deep knowledge of music, besides the prerequisite of not being inflexible, to appreciate the effort of Everything Everything.

The more you listen to this album, the more you feel invigorated by the evidence that music's paths are infinite; the English have taken an unknown path, regarded with fear (one can imagine reverential) by several worn-out pop-rock bands lacking any bite. In spite of everything and everyone, EE infuse youthful audacity (bordering on arrogance) into the climax of the entire album, making us understand at the same time how mature they are through the wise and calibrated use of instruments. For many, they will remain an incomprehensible entity, perhaps because “Man Alive” is of a qualitative craftsmanship in opposition to the times.

Let's move to the many certainties of this dazzling album, over which the constant falsetto singing of frontman Jonathan Higgs reigns, whose strength is the lack of grace, and which ends up hypnotizing the listener, inviting them to follow his trills (a daunting task).

The guitars, alternating with the keyboards, know how to shift from essential to predominant, elegant because they are often clean. The aforementioned keyboards know how to lay ambient drafts on which melodies develop or, when necessary, scratch with rough disco-synths. The bass-drums rhythmic setup is phenomenal: unconstrained, the bass finds ingenious riffs; the drums are powerful, precise, and sensitive, together they forge magical grooves.