"Trapped in the moment" - (Everything Everything - Get To Heaven)

Everything Everything
Get To Heaven

why you'll love it: Catchy and charismatic pop

why you'll hate it: Underachieves its potential

I have a whole lot of nice things to say about this album.  All-in-all, Everything Everything is probably the most exciting new (to me) discovery of 2015.  It feels like a lifetime ago that the gonzo-pop unit, Architecture in Helsinki went from the second coming of Talking Heads to a band I'd like to forget exists all together.  Does it Offend You Yeah? had a fearless approach to all of my favorite pop and rock guilty pleasures before they fell off the face of the planet.  Foals has some of the most appetizing production and knack for post-punk riffs I've ever heard, but usually are too high minded to have fun with them.

Everything Everything has all the talent and creativeness to be any of those things.  They are my new obsession.  A little bit of art, pop, rock, and that subtle British darkness & cynicism.  Now all I need for is that mess of ingredients to be parsed out into a perfect recipe.  With Get To Heaven, they're almost there...

Everything Everything walks the line between impossibly catchy pop, weird experimental vocals, and impressive musical performance.  Usually that is a good thing, but they never properly explore where they cast their nets.  I feel overcome by their versatility.  There are some people who play an open world video game like Fallout or Grand Theft Auto, and become burdened by the freedom.  There is so much to do, that some people become racked with indecision, and just give up.  That is what Get To Heaven feels like to me.  I don't know what band I want Everything Everything to be, but it feels like a waste of something great to try and be something in between all of them.

Get To Heaven starts S-T-R-O-N-G.  Even that album cover has a colorful and exciting flair to it.  "To The Blade" blasts off like a time bomb.  Everything Everything practically trolls the listener into playing it loud, introducing a low volume performance with a ridiculously high production sheen.  Even when knowing the song is going to explode, I'm compelled to crank up that intro.  "To The Blade" shows off Everything Everything's potential to be your new favorite manic rock band.  The disco sing-along "Distant Past", and the stomp & clap choir number "Regret" instead say "no no no, we are your new favorite twee-pop weirdo band."  "Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread" and "Get To Heaven" bring the radio friendly pop.   A lot of songs on the second half explore honest and impressive musical endeavors.  Everything Everything can do anything anything.  It's pretty cool, but none of it feels like their full creative or musical potential is reached.

Now that the big gripe is off my chest, let's just look at Get To Heaven for what it is.  It's a damn fun party album.  The first 20 minutes of it are near flawless (maybe the chorus to "Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread" is a bit hokey).  The halfway point of "The Wheel (is Turning Now)" really kills the momentum of this album, though.  I'm not sure why they would bring all the action to a halt (in both the album, and a pretty cool song) with an outro like this.  It almost sounds like the track is skipping for 2.5 minutes.  "Fortune 500" and "Blast Doors" are ok songs, but aren't impressive enough to get things back on track.  "Zero Pharaoh" and "Warm Healer" are amazing Gorillaz and Foals impersonations, respectively.  I don't mean that in an insulting way, either.  "Zero Pharaoh" especially, is one of my album highlights.  But again, both of these songs are slow, and just can't recapture the thrill of the first half of this album.  "No Reptiles" is probably the only skippable song on here, thanks to the lyrics.  The metaphors just don't work for me, and "I'm going to kill a stranger / So don't you be a stranger." is the most cringeworthy line on the whole album.

Jonathan Higgs's marathon of falsetto will probably be the most remembered takeaway from first time listeners.  He does tend to rely on it far too much.  It may be a turn off to some, and its effect wears off as the album progresses.  There are few moments where Higgs sings in a different key, and sometimes even in a reggae/hip-hop cadence (to much success, as hard as that is to believe).  If Higgs pinballed his range more often, there would really be something there.

And so we come back to the "if only..." thoughts.  Get To Heaven is a fun pop album, that tries a lot of things, and is individually successful at each of them.  With a some focus though, wow... I can't help but think they would have really made something quite special.