I finally got ‘Man Alive’, the 2010 debut by ..:~”*alternative*”~:.. Macunian wunderkinds Everything Everything. It’s so good to finally hear the dirty snippets that I obsessived repeat-offended on their Myspace in full-length, polished up, and sounding as sexy as Tom Sellick on a chocolate dildo*, most notably the fan and festival favourite, ‘Suffragette Suffragette’ (a bitch to spell, a blast to sing along to), and ‘Tin (The Manhole). In a merely textual format, I, being of base and immature nature do little more than giggle at the though of ‘Tin (The Manhole)’, however as a song, nay, a piece of tense, taut, aural joy, ‘Tin’ hits my spot. Give it a wee listen and it’ll hit yours, trust

Everything Everything - Tin (The Manhole) by jhowlett

Most surprisingly, however, were the amazing album tracks. Now I know when you hear the phrase ‘All Killer, No Filler’, you immediately think of Sum 41’s 2001 sophomore album**, but in this case, kids, it’s much more than a throughoughly spent cliche: opening, amazingly titled track ‘Querty Finger’ storms your eardurms using handclaps and a generous dose of EE’s typical harmonised vocals, but with a skosh of funky Casio, Palladium ‘Get It Right’-esque keys; the trippy, harpsichord led ‘Two For Nero’ blazes into an audio afterglow of jazzy snares; the seemingly standard*** ‘Come Alive Diana’ is completely decimated by perfectly pitched brass interjections that demand replays.

Standout track, even with the well known singles like the newly video made-over ‘Photoshop Handsome’ included in the tracklist, has to be closing stonker, ‘Weights’. It’s a slight departure from the previous 11 tracks, in that whilst remaining a complex and thoughtful indie track, it strips away the many layers of indie fuzz and harks back to the big chords and even bigger harmonies of 80’s stadium rock - the chorus evokes the power-up crescendo of Styx’s ‘Come Sail Away’ - lead singer Jonathan even sings the bridge atop an inspirationally elongated keyboard note. The spectaculary uplifting last minutes, with the aforementioned high key keys, crashing drums and affirmed, assured guitar riffing leave you feeling like you’re just won the game. And if your game is slightly belatedly finding the most original, thought provoking, raucous and downright fearless band of the last year, then yes. You have.

*Do they even make those? Not that I would be interested or whatever…

**Who could forget such radio killers as ‘Fat Lip’ and the mighty might ‘In Too Deep’ (Tones)

***Standard for Everything Everything, ie: melodic, heartfelt morbid (‘Her phantom head, her phantom head!’) and catchy pop song