The fourth record by Everything Everything is something of a slow burner. I was pretty disappointed when I first got it. However, while it never reaches the levels of
2013’s Arc, their career high (for
me, at least: wider critical consensus still seems to be that they’ve never
topped debut Man Alive), it rewards
repeated listens and showcases new depths. Some tracks, such as ‘Desire’, recall their earlier weird-pop sound, but
perhaps do so less successfully than did previous efforts. Where A Fever Dream really works are on the
dreamier forays into something new. The
title track is a lovely subdued ballad with an over-layered vocal refrain. ‘New Deep’ is a fantastic black keys
piano-tickler. And album best ‘Put Me
Together’ is searing social commentary disguised as a lullaby, with some killer
lyrics (‘there’s somebody washing the car and there’s somebody watching the
children, but they’re nothing like you and me / they celebrate all of the same
days and you see them out doing the garden, but they’re nothing like you and
me’). For the most part it’s a musically
minimal record, where less is more. Despite not being as showy as much of what they’ve done before, though,
it feels more musically mature. I have
to be in the mood for it, especially as it’s an album to ‘listen to’, not ‘have
on’. But at their best Everything Everything continue to
straddle ‘pop’ and ‘art’ with ease.
sample track: Put Me Together