r/everythingeverything

hi everyone! i don't imagine this post will be for anyone else really, but i was listening to man alive while researching critiques of work and had a thought!

--- the man alive section ---

when the band began with man alive, they came out with an overwhelming style. listening to the closing track weights, there are so many layers and ideas -- every line has a vocal harmony, the song changes approach like 3 times -- when i listen to this album, i get the feeling of musicians pushing their ideas as far as they possibly can. an everything and the kitchen sink approach.

i love man alive, but especially considering this was the band's debut as well as some of the things jon has said about his mentality at the time - i think you could see this style partly as an expression of insecurity and an overwhelming psychological need to 'prove' oneself as capable of doing extremely complicated and intricate work.

throughout the lyrics of the early albums especially, there are several of jon's lyrics which suggest he sees himself as lazy, and therefore worthy of contempt (see the house is dust - "i'm living proof that nothing gets done", radiant - "i could make a difference so easy, but i don't", schoolin' - "maybe i can sit here and do nothing clever with a lazer", final form - "oh, you gave your powers up", etc.).

man alive, to me, is an album all about wrestling with this feeling of being useless, or part of the problem. leave the engine room sees jon perform as the inheritor of white supremacy and patriarchy, unable and perhaps unwilling to give up his social position. final form is about someone attempting to take full advantage of their body, seeing someone else who doesn't have that chance. schoolin' wrestles with the question of whether or not humanity's campaign towards intelligence and advancement is spiritually fulfilling, ultimately landing on an (incredible) metaphor about how we've blocked out the stars with terrestrial light pollution. there's a lot of wrestling over being dissatisfied with the idea of proving oneself smart or worthy - i basically read it that jon is attempting to deconstruct and overcome the pressure to be an archetypical western white male genius, but also clearly wants that desperately.

--- the transition and mountainhead ---

over the next few albums, we see the band chill out, basically. the music gets more straightforward, and the lyrics get easier to read and interpret. songs are more often just about people. i think the switch really gets going with re-animator, but it's clearest with raw data feel.

in an interview with jon from the mountainhead era (i can't recall which one), he spoke about how on man alive, he felt like he needed to include layers and layers of instrumentation, but now he's learned that he only needs to include one layer, as long as they're very good. i personally think both approaches are great, but either way, once again, musically i think the band really chilled out on mountainhead.

describing your money, my summer, jon said that kind of sound would've been something they avoided in the past, but now felt comfortable with because they were more 'relaxed' as a band. the band has also been pretty open about how they are forced to create music with a strict deadline because of pressure built into capitalism -- if they don't produce a sellable product, they won't make money, and they starve. if i recall correctly, they started talking about this a lot in the raw data feel era.

anyway, what i'm getting at is that mountainhead sounds like less work than man alive, but lyrically it is about work. it is about the "endless fields of bodies swimming in the pit", about how everything we loved becoming a "picture of a simulation", about how it turns everyone into monsters - the losers (on buddy come over and canary) and the winners (dagger's edge). it is an album which looks much more directly at the problem, and it's much simpler musical style reinforces that theme.

--- the point ---

essentially i think there is a lot less wrestling with oneself on mountainhead than there is on man alive. both are interesting expressions of how the pressures of capitalism fuck with your brain, but one is very 'in it' and the other feels much more like someone watching from the side, trying to act as a 'witness' to those who struggle with it.

0474 190 044 Kristy - the lady crackhead who sleeps with her brother Tony they’re both sleeping together right now

0474 087 707 Marty is meant to be Kristy’s Fiance but he just sells and cooks meth

Kristy Allen Marty Prout

//kids// Archie -16 and stabbed a disabled kid at school Hailee - vapes and isn’t even 18 and has intercourse with her uncle Tony Stevie - has a boy name but is a girl she’s got attitude problems and an ugly face too poor kid Bobbie - she’s the sweetest and I feel the most bad for her cause she wants to die and her parents don’t give a shit that she’s 5-6 years old and is suicidal and hates her life

11 Arnold Drive, Hackham

(Whore house)

They think it’s cool to have illegal prostitution in their whore house and smoke crack blowing in their kids faces yet the uncle is a pedo so make sure you bite there head off for that too. I’m ratting these cracked out slugs because they fucked with my mate fed her full of pills and moments after she was raped in her sleep by Tony Luke Allen. He’s a well known kid fiddler and had his own kids rorted cause he touched them up. Went through jail and courts and everything. Now he’s a registered sex offender

imo there all perfect but what are your thoughts

this was so fun! i love EE but i have really skipped around in their discography over the last year and have never listened to every album all the way through in chronological order.

here's my current ranking of the albums. this takes into account the overall "cohesion" of the album, if there are songs i would consider "skips" on future relistens, and how many songs on the album are favorites of mine.

1. Mountainhead

2. Raw Data Feel

3. Get To Heaven (i finally heard Only As Good As My God for the first time and HOLY SHIT)

4. Man Alive/A Fever Dream (I have to give these 2 a tie - i really love them equally)

5. Arc (i was avoiding this one for some reason but it really grew on me. would be higher if the others weren't so strong)

6. Re-Animator (still a great album, just not my fave compared to all the others)

after this, it's clear that EE is meant to be experienced through their albums in full. i love that about them and can't wait to do more of that next time i listen.

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