Everything Everything have been making little secret of their desire to widen their fanbase with their second album and thereby to move a shedload of records. Coming off a Mercury nominated debut that married indie and R&B influences they’ve clearly decided that, lovely
though it is to have critical kudos, really, it’s all about bums on seats.
This may not be immediately clear as the record opens with last year’s curve-ball single, ‘Cough Cough’, three-and-a-half minutes of jackhammer indie funk in which, arguably, too much happens at once. A truer sense of where the group is at – and where they want to get to – is conveyed by ‘Kemosabe’, which sounds like Chris Martin fronting a slowed down Bloc Party. It’s wonderful, with a chorus that finds a way to be simultaneously stirring and subtle. Just two tracks in, however, and already we’ve reached the high-point; thereafter Everything Everything rifle through their kit-bag of Radiohead, Muse and, not to labour the point, Coldplay influences. In a recent interview frontman Jonathan Higgs complained that the Chris Martin / Matt Bellamy comparisons were unjust – it was hardly his fault that, like them, his natural singing voice is an impassioned falsetto. He has a point. But ithere is an undeniable ring of Muse to ‘Torso Of The Week’ – even the title has a Black Holes & Revelations-esque ring. As with everything else on Arc, is it strong stuff. You just wish they’d risen to the heights of ‘Kemosabe’ more ofte