The Manchester art-rockers kept a clear objective in mind when working on their much-anticipated third album. “We just want it to be bold and surprising… and not safe”, frontman Jonathan Higgs told NME in 2013 when asked how the band were planning to follow up their first two albums. Get To Heaven is in many ways the album you would expect from Everything Everything upon receipt of this tidbit, but it also boasts a newfound maturity in the band’s sound that demands the listener’s attention. The singles ‘Distant Past’ and ‘Regret’ offer catchy choruses, smooth basslines and quirky guitar riffs, making the album very likeable on the first play through, although many of the deeper cuts really come in to their own after a few listens.
With the fast pace of the music reinforcing the lyrical themes of audiovisual bombardment in the age of 24-hour news coverage, the album might seem overwhelming compared to the down-tempo groove of 2013’s Arc. From the ignition of opening track ‘To The Blade’, there are few opportunities to catch one’s breath as the album flurries through a series of hard-hitting indie anthems. The tonal relief and emotional heart of the album come from penultimate track ‘No Reptiles’, which features a dreamy, synth-heavy crescendo and a selection of Higgs’ most clever and bizarre lyrics to date (“It’s alright to feel like a fat child in a push chair / old enough to run / old enough to fire a gun”).
Despite the bigger, brassier sound of Get To Heaven, it is undeniably an Everything Everything album. Each track takes an unexpected turn to the weird and wonderful before it is through, an aspect to the band’s music that will amuse and perplex fans old and new.
Get To Heaven was released on 22nd June via RCA.
