Everything Everything - Man Alive

(Geffen)

Manchester pop boffins Everything Everything are the most aptly-named rock troupe since The Band. They cram pretty much every hipster device into their ebullient, chock-a-block debut, and then fire in the tenets of electro and classical. Tempo changes, vocal athletics, post-punk riffs and syncopated rhythms are therefore standard (‘Schoolin’’, ‘My KZ Ur BF’); as are harpsichord madrigals (‘Two for Nero’) and rock histrionics (‘Qwerty Finger’).

Their contemporaries might include Hot Chip and Silver Columns, but there’s something of The Darkness in the quartet’s melodic fervour and quick-fire falsetto. Still: Everything Everything are certainly masters of tropical, inventive – if relentless – guitar-pop.