Everything Everything - HMV Manchester - 31.8.09Manchester has issues. Major Issues. Half of the city's desperately clinging onto the past with the Factory legacy being rolled out at least once a month like some ageing dinosaur as Hooky finds some otherrelic to resurrect and sell to the masses, while the other half of the city wants a cultural bomb to make the sizeable impact the IRA attacks on the city made in the late 90s. Today as we watch EverythingEverything launch their album "Man Alive" at HMV Manchester, a band who are based in Manchester but who's members originate from Newcastle and Kent, the two worlds collide - Mani skulks shiftily outside theManchester Arndale just meer feet from the band, while in attendance watching the band are old schooler’s Marc 'Lard' Riley and Hacienda stalwart Dave Haslam - Nerdchester has indeed came face to face withMadchester.
Being an album launch show this sort 5 song set is a mere introduction to the band and in truth misses out our favourite tracks from the album, the more difficult and downbeat songs which are really Everything Everything's forte. "Qwerty Finger" is the band distilled to its most simplistic, Futureheads without the abrasiveness and the sort of harmonies that only very very tight trousers can aid. "Schoolin" is probably their best single to date and is the sort of low-key classic that NERD uses to excel in, all stuttering tribal beats and funk breaks.
"Tin (The Manhole)" features the lush harmonies you'd associate with Wild Beats while having subtle beats that would come from Hot Chip - it's winning combination of dreamy introspective pop which hints at how good Everything Everything can be on album number 2 when they discard the more throwaway elements. Sadly the don't follow this with the album's best track "Leave The Engine Room" but instead head into"My Kz, Ur BF" does as its title suggests and keeps things simple, well as simple as you can with Everything Everything do with intricate arpeggios and about a million harmonies going on at once.
"Suffragette Suffragette" perhaps features a better lyric than the song itself deserves "Cause you're gonna sit on your fence when I'm gone / Cause you're gonna sit on your fence when I'm not there"
"Man Alive" is an album that hints at greatness rather than scales those dizzy heights and whether that's enough for a generation that wants eveything (everything) now in one easy digestible slice remains to be seen. There's a sense that they could go anywhere from this album and its whether they choose to go down the poppier route of the single or the downbeat route of the aforementioned "Leave The Engine Room" or "Nasa Is On Your Side". We're praying its the latter.
Words: Alex McCann
Photos: Jo Lowes http://jojolowes.tumblr.com/
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