Everything Everything
‘Man Alive’
(Geffen)

With a moniker like that, it’s nailed on that the long-awaited debut from Everything Everything should be a kitchen-sink’n’all affair. After all, everything about the Manchester four-piece screams bold and bonkers – makes sense that the resultant album should be a listen of the head-warping sort, eh? Well, yeah and no; ‘Man Alive’ certainly showcases the quartet’s inventive playfulness, but it’s streamlined in a way that most bands don’t master until a few albums in. The singles, and a couple of B-sides, are all correct and present, beefed-up by David Kosten’s sonic wizardry, but there’s a sheer strength of song running right the way through, the band never letting their imaginative minds get in the way of eardrum-squatting hooks. It’s a record that, like Foals’ ‘Total Life Forever’, redefines what it is to be a guitar band in 2010; the jerky art-jitters of ‘QWERTY Finger’ sounds like a sped-up, bull-in-a-china-shop Talking Heads, the calculated menace of ‘Final Form’ glides to a restrained, syncopated groov, its melancholic melodies recalling Thom Yorke’s way with an achingly croonful vocal, whilst the choral climax of closer ‘Weights’ brings the album to a juddering, euphoric end. A captivating, thrilling listen from start to finish – ‘Man Alive’ is the best British guitar debut of 2010.

Niall Doherty