Everything Everything : 'My Keys, Your Boyfriend'
Released: 5th October 2009
Label: Young & Lost Club
Not so long ago I was drinking a copper-bubbled brew and discussing with a friend the countless methods by which to get my band off the ground when the words Young and Lost ran into the dialogue as if to mirror the predicament. We waxed at length on the myriad of side doors into professional musicianship including the essential graft of schmoozing with the right bands, in the right places, by the book and around the clock. Of course there is also the small task of writing pitch perfect, tightly honed masterpieces which is vital if you are in the business of getting le public to kick off into front-stage-frenzy at the drop of a note. No doubt Everything Everything played to a medley of close friends, pets and even family members but those days are firmly wedged into the back of their minds gathering piles of cerebral dust. They are now hot property and boy can they draft records. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt compelled to write standing up so I can cut a rug past my speakers and monitor to the left wall. On this occasion it is more than warranted - it’s frigging mandatory.
Want to know what will separate this band from a good number of popular artists? Serious time spent writing. That’s it. There’s nothing hammered out about 'My Keys Your Boyfriend'. How am I to know how long it took to get this to work? I’m not. But I can guess it wasn’t rushed through the same blender Alesha Dixon uses. I metaphorically beat myself across the head for the comparison. To what extent is creative experimentation merely the act of throwing up a whole set of clichés? How can the artist avoid repeating certain aspects of the work of their predecessors to detrimental effect? Everything Everything produce new and sumptuous fruit in this respect. Simon and Garfunkel, Earth Wind and Fire, the Bee Gees and Stevie Wonder – it’s all present. Motown-esque vocals go down like silk and are as cryingly necessary as the groove which is sparing, tasteful and right in the pocket.
By comparison to tracks such as 'NASA Is on Your Side' and 'Tin (the manhole)' which take care of the mellower side of their repertoire, this track is more of a record deal clincher. This is not to say that it simply tickles the simpler pleasure nodes, it is strewn with exciting nuances such as hi pitched harmonies and gymnastic lyricism.
Despite the fact Everything Everything do tug on the strings of the usual suspects (The Beatles, The Smiths etc) their song writing approach harks back to a more American popular music tradition riding the carousel of positive re-invention past the seventies and getting off back in 2009. This is very apparent with tracks like 'Suffragette Suffragette'. I think about them in relation to Fleet Foxes who have formed a serious part of the revival of American folk music.
I strongly suggest checking out all you can with the time you have when it comes to this band. The name says it all. You’ll only have to listen through a few tracks to realise the extent to which they are stylistically all encompassing. The music industry, the world listener, needs a band that can play Anything Anything. I am truly inspired.
Words: Phillip Cogger
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