Unusually he openly acknowledged the challenge of avoiding the creeping inevitability of dilution of artistic purpose and the commonplace slide in quality that gradually envelopes most bands as they move beyond that vital initial spark of inspiration, if indeed they ever had it.
He also reminded us that incredibly they’ve been fighting the good fight for seventeen years. As excellent as their first two albums were, it wasn't until LP number three that they turned in their stone-cold classic, Get to Heaven, but then its three follow-ups were no weak relations either.
Throughout those six albums Everything Everything have convincingly established themselves as one of the rare bands prepared to get their hands dirty articulating the particular horror of the postmodern age, while simultaneously standing back in awe of the beauty and the possibility that, even now, exists. Their humour is key but sometimes allows a cartoonish portrayal, partly of their own making, to distract from the impressive body of work they’ve left strewn over the last 17 years, leaving them as perennial underdogs, possibly a role they relish.
So what to make of Mountainhead?
Well, back in that interview the inspiration was made clear, Higgs is unsurprisingly keen to probe the febrile place we’ve arrived at in world history. Questioning the inequality of the age but, having twice digested the late Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism, approaching the future with enough optimism to at least partially counter the creeping fear. Are we on the verge of a change for the better or a slide into something worse?
The jury is out, but don’t worry Mountainhead backs
up Higgs’ desire to avoid polemic and, perhaps more importantly,
delivers on his promise of enforcing the band’s “all bangers policy”.
When all is said and done, if everything’s going to shit bangers are
what we need.
Mountainhead continues the slide away from guitar
towards more synthetic textures but crucially without sacrificing the
band’s essential humanity. Higgs is at the centre of the maelstrom,
playing the role of an embattled everyman, his vocals channelling
disbelief and disgust at the arbitrary cruelty and absurd indifference
of a system stacked against him. As hard as he struggles the more
ensnared he becomes.
Still, there’s a lightness of touch to intense tracks like
opener “Wild Guess,” elastic bass propelling an elegiac rush of sound -
immediately impressive and it wasn’t even a single. Not for the first
time on Mountainhead Higgs cuts a lonely figure amongst the unforgiving tide of modern life.
But this is Everything Everything and their own forward
motion rarely lets up. In today's chart-world for them a conventional
‘hit’ single seems out of reach, nevertheless the album’s three singles
once again deftly balance commerciality and profundity in a way few
bands can. “Cold Reactor” is key, setting out ‘the concept’ amid a
dreamily-driving soundscape, its protagonist barely hanging on by their
fingertips in a near-future (or present?) where humanity is traded for
apparent progress.
The evidence stacking up over these 14 songs persuasively
suggests Everything Everything are still able to locate the questing
intensity that brought them into being, but have learned to ease back on
the freneticism to allow additional breathing space within their
creations. Certainly as the stark and troubled rumination on trauma “The
Witness” reaches its ambient coda, their journey feels like it won’t be
leading to a place of defeated nostalgia anytime soon.
Where does Mountainhead stand in their canon? Only
prolonged exposure will tell, but one thing is beyond doubt; it’s the
best concept album you will hear all year about a subjugated society
literally digging a hole that takes them further away from those at the
top of the heap.
