Re-Animator - Everything Everything: Review
is a British experimental pop band who have spent the last decade releasing five critically acclaimed projects blending futuristic pop sounds with the worlds of art rock and electronica. The decade was highlighted by 2015's Get To Heaven a record whose specific sound the band has quietly transitioned away from in recent years.
Review By Lavender:
I quite enjoy the music of Everything Everything, and while Get To Heaven is clearly the bands best record I enjoy the rest of their material more than most. That includes their last record 2017's A Fever Dream which wasn't perfect but included some of my favorite tracks from the bands career in Night Of The Long Knives and Can't Do. The singles didn't blow me away this time around and I wasn't sure what to expect from the record but the resulting songs here aren't terrible or incredible, just alright.
Two of the singles that didn't do much for me still didn't win me over on the record. In Birdsong is truly an Everything Everything ballad which is why I thought it was such a weird choice for a lead single. The track does little for me with a blown out instrumental that has no impact whatsoever and the whole thing goes on for an uncomfortable 5 minutes. Arch Enemy also wasn't great despite some parts of the instrumental being slick or catchy in isolation. When you pair this instrumental with the super forgettable hook and don't let it evolve through the runtime it makes for another dud in the tracklist. Thankfully there aren't a lot of other tracks here on this same level, but there are a few. Moonlight is one of the records more lowkey cuts which also doesn't do much for me. I don't think the vocal crying out into space is quite as compelling as it's supposed to be and when the moment the songs building towards falls flat it makes the build itself a chore every time, not to mention the instrumental is one of the plainest I've ever heard from the band. Finally The Actor has a bouncy instrumental that reads like the intro to a Kero Kero Bonito song but it never develops and makes for a really strange pairing with the dramatic vocals, I'm just not sure what the goal was with this one.
The biggest feature of the record here is songs that aren't that bad or that good and come off as just kind of forgettable. The band has a history of great opening tracks but Lost Powers doesn't quite live up to that level. The song does build into an improvement in the second half but even then it doesn't quite hold up. It Was A Monstering is another quieter cut with a deep bassline guiding the song through it's passages. The hook is melodramatic and long-winded but I do enjoy other parts of the track. While it's on the longer side it probably didn't need to approach the 5 minute mark but I don't hate it. Black Kyena is an admirable attempt at recreating the bands fluid experimental pop sound but one that just falls short particularly on the instrumental side which gets incredibly routine by the end of the song. Once again I think the song is fine but I wish it had that extra push to make it more memorable.
Big Climb is a very strange track that draws heavily from influences I've never heard the band dabble in before. The song is the most Red Hot Chili Peppers I have ever heard the band sound from the funky grooves to the vocal delivery particularly on the verse refrains. But all of a sudden on the hook the band goes SUPER Depeche Mode. Honestly the meeting of these styles is super unique and I enjoy the track more and more on repeat listens. Planets is a single that I love much more within the record than I originally did as a single. I like the vocals more and more every time I hear it and the climbing synth passages are really cool. The track also has a kooky edge to it that I love about the bands music and makes it sound so unique. Lord Of The Trapdoor is one of the only lowkey songs here that I actually really enjoy with wiry guitars alongside an explosion of percussion which back a high note held for an impossibly long time over the tracks climax. The song is tense and claustrophobic in a way that draws me in and reminds me of the bands best work. Violent Sun was my favorite single before I heard the record and I like it a lot as a closer to the record. It gets off to a slow start but really gets into its groove shortly after. It's got one of the catchier refrains here and a progression that makes too much sense sliding from one infectious moment to the next. The ending comes completely out of nowhere but I actually enjoy the sudden stop as it feels fitting for a record like this that aims to never settle down.
Re-Animator is a pretty routine record for Everything Everything at this point. While it is sonically different from some of the other releases the only thing truly missing here is the unhinged experimentation that makes the band so exciting to begin with. There are a number of songs here that experimental pop veterans will enjoy but I don't see this record standing out come the end of this year, or much less going forward when compared to some of the bands other works. 5.5/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
This is a nice cover but just for tis concept. I think the idea of abstraction and mirrored position is cool but I'm not a huge fan of the bright highlights on the figure, I think the text position and color are great but the main subject lacks something. 6.5/10
For more experimental pop check out my review of A.G. Cook's 7G here
