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
“Yes! You read right…March 22nd!!” writes strokes bassist Nikolai Fraiture on the subject of the Stroke’s highly anticipated forthcoming fourthcoming album. “Looking forward to playing the new songs live.”
Er, I’m fucking looking forward to seein the new songs live!
Please excuse me if my (probably quite low in the first place) writing standards slip into sqee-ing, profanities, rushy-typed spelling mistakes and exclamation marks, but the Strokes are one of my favourite bands and the new album drops the day before my birthday! I have so many memories of leaning against headboard, 13, new, bulky, exciting laptop plugged in, their perfectly pitched sophomore album, ‘Room On Fire’, that my brother bought for my birthday, blaring, being the anti-social newly minted teenager that I was.
Now, as a wordly and wholly experienced 16 year old, I am going to make the precairous prediction that the Strokes will be headlining Reading and Leedsl 2011. It’s only right! If I am correct, somebody safeguard this girls pants; without necessarcy precautions, they will soon be flying onto beautiful lead guitarist Nick Valensi’s head :/
N’awww look at the wee baby-faced lead singer, bottom left. Sweetie. But! Anyways! Who are Morning Parade, you enquire in a coke-fuelled frenzy. Well, they’re from Essex. There’s five of them. And they’re tearing up the blogosphere. To me they’re kind of like what it would be like if Keane were nutted on ket, then they were helipcopter-dropped into pre-closure Gunatanamo Bay, and told that the only way to avoid enforced bum-fun was to entertain the inmates with perfectly polished, innovative yet radio-friendly carnival influenced but shiny electronic pop. And have they achieved this? Let us just say that no one went home sore, that imaginary night :)
If nothing else, give ‘Under the Stars’ a little listen. You will definetely not not be boppin’ around by the close
It was ‘Helena’ by MCR that first introduced my to rock music. That beautiful video, their pasty, red rimmed, black-dyed image, totally opposite to what most people would have thought a 12-year-old middle class black girl would find interesting, and of course, the wailing, super-hyperbolic anthem of a tune. ”[What actually IS] the worst thing [you] could say?”* I’m emo? Well, no, I’m not. It’s not as black and white as that - through My Chemical Romance, I was introduced to rock, which led me to liking indie**, which led me to liking alternative, which led me right round to liking genres like country, afrobeat, rap, ska, dance, etc. ”Things are better off this way.”
And also, I don’t really rate cutting myself as a crazywackyfun activity. Don’t know about you :)
*’Helena’ - My Chemical Romance
**I had a brief, Converse-wearing stage where I was particularly fond of wearing a scuzzy red Primark hoodie (which I eventually got signed by the Cheek while they were still called Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds, way back when at Underage Festival’s 2009 Christmas Party), would regularly spend time making up crap songs on the guitar I eventually abandoned, and actually owned a pair of houndstooth skinny jeans. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
