Everything Everything - A Deeper Sea EP

Everything Everything is a band that has been all over the place on my radar.  For years, I found their early material to be so drab and not interesting.  Or at least, not as interesting as they aimed it to be.  But in 2015 they really blew my damn mind with "Get To Heaven".  This album was so colorful and incredibly full of character.  The songs were catchy, futuristic, and had such lasting power.  But then last year they came out with their "Fever Dream" album, and I was a little letdown.  There were still very punchy, catchy tunes.  But there wasn't nearly as much character, and I forgot most of this album almost immediately.  I didn't really expect to hear Everything Everything anytime soon, but here we are with a new EP.  Let's chat!

This EP starts out with “The Mariana”, and oh boy, this is literally the furthest from where I want to hear these guys.  I want to hear Everything Everything at their wildest and most adventurous.  This is the opposite, and quite frankly some of the most ridiculously bland and light material they could have given us.  Not even on their last album was the material this safe.  No, that pulsating beat doesn’t make up for anything, and frontman Jonathan Higgs just doesn’t even sound like himself within this atmosphere.  It’s haunting at parts, but my GOD I hope this isn’t what we can expect to hear from the future of this band.  Ironically, “Breadwinner” is the polar opposite.  Right off the bat, I feel like I’m right back in the presence of a dangerous Indie Pop band that will subject me to anything.  It’s actually a really exciting tune, and I love the vocals which honestly sound alive.  The falsettos here come off so wild, and the instrumental is just so vibrant and glitchy.  This is everything that I once truly loved about Everything Everything.  It’s exciting, futuristic, and what I want, no, NEED to hear from Everything Everything.  Then we get a remix done by Tom Vek of “Ivory Tower” from their “Fever Dream” album.  But if we had THIS sound on “A Fever Dream”, that album would have been a shoe in for one of my favorites of the year.  I love the heavily altered vocals and the intense instrumentals.  It all comes off so vibrant and truly left field, and it’s easily one of the more left-of-the-dial tunes I’ve heard from Everything Everything in ages.  This mix of “Ivory Tower” is dense at times, even a little dark.  But it’s moments like this that more than anything remind us who Everything Everything are.  Obviously this is a remix, but it’s a damn good one, and ironically sums up the sound of what Everything Everything should be going for.  Not to mention, I just LOVE how wild Jonathan Higgs comes off.  But of all of the things I wanted on this EP, an acoustic, stripped down Neil Young cover is literally last on my list.  This EP ends off with a cover of “Don’t Let It Bring You Down”, and I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad cover. I actually think there’s some really beautiful moments here.  But for me, this just isn’t what I want to hear from these guys.  They’re such a ballsy, fearless, and truly experimental Pop group.  But this is just so tame and run of the mill.  However, I do think Jonathan Higgs’s vocals are really fantastic.  Like, sure the ending picks up and gets a little more colorful, but not nearly enough.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BmH0iHmYnw

Rating: 6.6/10

Genre: Experimental Pop / Indie Rock / Art Rock

Overall Thoughts:  This is the textbook definition of a mixed bag of an EP.  When it's good, this EP reminds me of everything I want to hear from Everything Everything.  The otherworldly rhythms, the altered vocals, everything about this band that turns the Pop world on it's head and doesn't let go.  But for every moment that really gives me hope, there's a moment that sort of discourages me from sitting around waiting for these guys to get interesting again.  When it's good, it's fantastic, but when this EP slows down you're going to need some coffee.