Man Alive – Everything Everything
4 Stars
Without seeming too unsympathetic towards the millions of people across the globe who are fighting tooth and nail to ‘make it’ as musicians in the world of showbiz, the brand of ‘music’ that is espoused by men like Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh is simply the worst thing that has ever happened to our society. Not only does it cheapen the efforts of all of those musicians who have actually taken the time to be original, but it creates a climate where the charts are dominated by the same music week in and week out.
It is lucky for us, then, that Man Alive, the debut album from Manchester natives Everything Everything, has arrived to shake things up a bit and upset the hegemony of bland, corporate indie music that has dominated the charts for so long. Tracks like ‘My Kz, Ur BF’ and ‘Photoshop Handsome’ take a fresh perspective on those twin themes of love and heartbreak that other bands often find it hard to look at originally, while ‘Two for Nero’ and ‘Suffragette Suffragette’ actually include the kind of intellectual lyrics that have long been absent from popular music.
While some people might not agree that Everything Everything are “Pop’s New Picassos”, as the NME has recently claimed, that tickets for next month’s show at the Deaf Institute sold out in less than four hours would be sufficient evidence to support the statement. Whether this album will inspire an entirely new school of music, or whether Everything Everything are better off as a standalone example of what music is capable of when the shackles of convention are broken, is unclear. What is certain however is that Everything Everything are one of the most interesting bands to have graced the airwaves and record shops in a long time.
Daniel Zuidijk
