While I'm not sure if it's strictly intended (I believe the band has said only half the songs strictly relate to the concept), it's possible to see a sort of vague plot in Mountainhead: 'Wild Guess' foreshadows the ending (the bodies floating in the pit) as well as serving as a re-introduction to the band itself. We are introduced to our protagonist, who feels like yesterday's man and seeks purpose ('The End Of The Contender'). He joins the cult of the Mountain and seeks connection with other people in the Pit ('Cold Reactor', 'Buddy Come Over') but remains unsatisfied with his life ('R U Happy?'). He meets the estate agent who promises him he can earn a place at the top of the mountain ('Mad Stone'). He is further indoctrinated with media and by the cult's priests ('TV Dog', 'Canary'). At some point he has a falling out with the cult ('Don't Ask Me To Beg') and decides to climb the mountain to see the mirror himself ('Enter The Mirror'). He steals from the cult and leaves ('Your Money. My Summer', 'Dagger's Edge'). He tries to restart his life in the city but still feels like there's unfinished business ('City Song'). Finally, he returns and enacts some kind of apocalyptic revenge on the cult, destroying the mountain and flooding the Pit, killing everyone ("How could I know that if I wasn't there?" seems to suggest "Because I caused it"). The last victim is the canary, who saw them commit the crime, and ironically is therefore the last to die, but the protagonist remains and must live with the knowledge of his actions ('The Witness').
Everything Everything is one of, if not my favorite, band of all time. Even though not all albums from them are great, this last album has solidified them for me as one that knows how to craft smart pop hooks with smart themes. Get to Heaven and Arc are also amazing records, with A Fever Dream also being very solid but not as good bc the political lyrics on that album are just a bit too basic for my tastes. But out of 7 albums, 4 of them are all time greats and the other 3 have songs that are some of the best in pop and rock music.
AVAA! I see a lot of people already recommended Get to Heaven, but some specific tracks I think you'd enjoy based on what you said about Mountainhead: Qwerty Finger (about anglo-centrism and Technology) and Luddites and Lambs (about Luddites!) from the Man Alive deluxe; Undrowned (lots of very 2013 British cultural references in there like a weird little time capsule) and most of A Fever Dream (largely about the rise of fascism in the UK during the Brexit saga; lots of interesting stuff about alienation + the breakdown of society) but especially Run The Numbers and Put Me Together.
Also you might get a kick out of learning that Alex Niven - a founding member of the band who left in 2009 to pursue an academic career - actually wrote the intro to the new 2022 edition of Capitalist Realism!
SVCT - super vidéo comme toujours (don’t know if the french version applies for the rule). Everything Everything is my favorite band ! I was one of the people who recommended them to you 2 years ago on your community post. Capitalist Realism is an amazing book, it’s less than a 100 pages on how capitalism has evolved to take the shape it has in the 21th century. It’s really influenced by French Theory, specifically Deleuze and his own account of capitalism in the 70s and 80s. I really recommend it
No idea how I missed this, I'm subscribed and Mountainhead is my favourite album of the year so far. Anyway, great vid!! Really glad to see you're still on the EE train. Not sure if anyone else has said much on Enter the Mirror, but I took it as a direct push against the solipsism from The Mad Stone. At the top of the mountain is a mirror which simply leads to useless navel gazing, one guy looking inwards cause he reached the top and no longer has anywhere else to go. But on Enter the Mirror 2 of them reach the top together and so aren't stuck in that loop of loneliness and craziness that causes people like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate to exist. It's just a pro friendship song, which is so basic but heartfelt
4:34 made me giggle. I appreciate this thoughtful breakdown of Everything Everything, it helps me justify why I’ve been so in love with them for so long
Everything Everything is everything. Certainly one of my favorite bands of all time, and definitely my favorite band over the last several years. And it's always the same for me---I'll listen to a new EE album, and I'll like a couple of songs. Then I'll listen again, and I love a song and like more. By the 5th listen through, I love every song on the album, and my favorite song on the album goes through a rotation. It's astonishing that they have done this consistently on every single one of their albums. Magical.
I don’t know that it’s what the band intended, but “Your Money, My Summer” really hit me for the first time on break at my shitty food service job and the chorus made me think about myself vs those people at the top. Your socialist friend’s Ferrari joke gets at it too! The contrast of the almost taunting falsetto backing vocals with Higgs’ dejected delivery of “God knows I wanna go home.” The rich get to go on holiday all around the world while working class people are at work with the simple wish to just be at home. That feeling is enough to feel at home with the rest of the concept for me. Jonathan Higgs said that even without direct references to the mountain, most of the songs are the perspectives to people living in this “fictional” system. Really spelling out the metaphor for anyone who might somehow not see that we’re the Mountainheads.
I was so very hyped for the release of this album, and then it came out. On first listen I didn't even make it all the way through. Something about it just turned me off, and I thought "what a huge disappointment". On second listen (a few weeks later), I found I was actually loving some of the grooves and paid more attention to Jonathan's lyrics. However, I still felt disappointed. The last record was fantastic and Get to Heaven might be my favorite "rock" album of all time. I saw a lot of praise for the newest release, and was upset about not getting it on the first few tries. I'm excited to give it another listen after watching this analysis. Thanks Prof.
Good in-depth review, glad you could appreciate the time and effort to bring lore to song and so well produced…. by the band themselves, no outside help, just like they did with Raw Data Feel. Their Get to Heaven album. Give it a try. Couple tracks from that album are their go to encore songs for good reason.
AVAA - This is a great prelude to seeing them live again later this week(suprisingly one of the best live bands going) thanks again for the great work skye
AVAA! The level of thought you put into this review is wonderful, it's pretty clear you're an educator. I have really liked EE for a few years but the way you practically line by line and section by section analyzed it made me double backs and listen closely. Also I've gleaned you don't typically listen to older music from bands you have discovered, I think their third album is worth an exception to this as I can only imagine your analysis and enjoyment of it would match Raw Data Feel and Mountainhead.
AAVA! Hi Prof, if you ever wanted to take on a really unique video, I suggest a short analysis of the song "チーム友達"(Team Friends) by KOHH, which has been blowing up in Japanese underground circles. This shouldn't require too much translation because most of the lyrics are just "team friends." I think it would be interesting because it fits your Carnival chant theory and I don't think you've analyzed much Asian music, which is absolutely relevant in this decade. P.S. I'm curious to hear more of your thoughts on Ayn Rand.. books in general!
Yeah they do have a guitarist and he also happens to be the guy who produces their songs since raw data feel! Ill comment properly when ive finished the video! Loving it so far ❤
City Song is inspired by Mark Fisher? That makes SO much sense... I think you should read Fisher, an excellent 21st century philosopher. His work on Hauntology is not strictly nihilist, but observing the _spectres_ of economic libido and culture can open that door quite readily. Read responsibly! Also, I think you should listen to everything everything by Everything Everything. They've always been a top tier act. AVAA!
a guide to the other ee albums from me,, man alive: i havent heard it yet!! but what i have heard is wild wacky off kilter mathy pop ridiculousness. arc: incredibly vivid pop album about the apocalypse. "cough cough" and "the peaks" are so amazing. its more 'tasteful' so the band doesnt like it that much. get to heaven: bright dancey bangers about killing the queen. every song goes hard, and the band really gets good at writing empathetically about society's most hated figures. if ur someone who hates themselves, this album might actually kind of help you. a fever dream: super cohesive and atmospheric album which applies the same empathetic eyes to the political tensions in britain surrounding brexit. the singer seems to tie the tensions closely to his own emotional problems, so to me the album feels more "the personal is political" than theyve ever done. reanimator: a great raw weird album, with some of the band's best songs (violent sun, arch enemy, lost powers, etc). has this weird liminal energy to the production and vibes. eternally underrated, the amnesiac of their discography. thematically drawing even more personal, literally exploring the nature of consciousness and human psychology. yeah !!!! the band isnt for everyone, but if you like the last two albums so much, i really think you'd get a lot out of their other work. "get to heaven" is a safe bet for a next step!
While I'm not sure if it's strictly intended (I believe the band has said only half the songs strictly relate to the concept), it's possible to see a sort of vague plot in Mountainhead:
'Wild Guess' foreshadows the ending (the bodies floating in the pit) as well as serving as a re-introduction to the band itself. We are introduced to our protagonist, who feels like yesterday's man and seeks purpose ('The End Of The Contender').
He joins the cult of the Mountain and seeks connection with other people in the Pit ('Cold Reactor', 'Buddy Come Over') but remains unsatisfied with his life ('R U Happy?'). He meets the estate agent who promises him he can earn a place at the top of the mountain ('Mad Stone'). He is further indoctrinated with media and by the cult's priests ('TV Dog', 'Canary').
At some point he has a falling out with the cult ('Don't Ask Me To Beg') and decides to climb the mountain to see the mirror himself ('Enter The Mirror'). He steals from the cult and leaves ('Your Money. My Summer', 'Dagger's Edge').
He tries to restart his life in the city but still feels like there's unfinished business ('City Song'). Finally, he returns and enacts some kind of apocalyptic revenge on the cult, destroying the mountain and flooding the Pit, killing everyone ("How could I know that if I wasn't there?" seems to suggest "Because I caused it"). The last victim is the canary, who saw them commit the crime, and ironically is therefore the last to die, but the protagonist remains and must live with the knowledge of his actions ('The Witness').
love this take
Yes, yes they are. Excited for the video
Everything Everything is one of, if not my favorite, band of all time. Even though not all albums from them are great, this last album has solidified them for me as one that knows how to craft smart pop hooks with smart themes. Get to Heaven and Arc are also amazing records, with A Fever Dream also being very solid but not as good bc the political lyrics on that album are just a bit too basic for my tastes. But out of 7 albums, 4 of them are all time greats and the other 3 have songs that are some of the best in pop and rock music.
AVAA! I see a lot of people already recommended Get to Heaven, but some specific tracks I think you'd enjoy based on what you said about Mountainhead: Qwerty Finger (about anglo-centrism and Technology) and Luddites and Lambs (about Luddites!) from the Man Alive deluxe; Undrowned (lots of very 2013 British cultural references in there like a weird little time capsule) and most of A Fever Dream (largely about the rise of fascism in the UK during the Brexit saga; lots of interesting stuff about alienation + the breakdown of society) but especially Run The Numbers and Put Me Together.
Looking forward to this one! This album and band needs more attention
AVAA! Gotta recommend their album Get to Heaven - phenomenal front to back & maybe my favourite album artwork ever
Also you might get a kick out of learning that Alex Niven - a founding member of the band who left in 2009 to pursue an academic career - actually wrote the intro to the new 2022 edition of Capitalist Realism!
SVCT - super vidéo comme toujours (don’t know if the french version applies for the rule). Everything Everything is my favorite band ! I was one of the people who recommended them to you 2 years ago on your community post. Capitalist Realism is an amazing book, it’s less than a 100 pages on how capitalism has evolved to take the shape it has in the 21th century. It’s really influenced by French Theory, specifically Deleuze and his own account of capitalism in the 70s and 80s. I really recommend it
No idea how I missed this, I'm subscribed and Mountainhead is my favourite album of the year so far. Anyway, great vid!! Really glad to see you're still on the EE train.
Not sure if anyone else has said much on Enter the Mirror, but I took it as a direct push against the solipsism from The Mad Stone. At the top of the mountain is a mirror which simply leads to useless navel gazing, one guy looking inwards cause he reached the top and no longer has anywhere else to go. But on Enter the Mirror 2 of them reach the top together and so aren't stuck in that loop of loneliness and craziness that causes people like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate to exist. It's just a pro friendship song, which is so basic but heartfelt
AVAA Mr. Skye! Don't forget to check out the new Bladee and Yung Lean record
Gonna start calling you Professor Superlative, Superlative Skye, Skye's Limit. 😂🎉😊
lol. I spend the first couple minutes of the video talking about that. Unfortunately, it helps to used blunt titles to sell nuanced thoughts.
@@professorskye No shade, all love professor-specific if not -explicit. Lol. All positive review-show reviews here.
4:34 made me giggle. I appreciate this thoughtful breakdown of Everything Everything, it helps me justify why I’ve been so in love with them for so long
Everything Everything is everything. Certainly one of my favorite bands of all time, and definitely my favorite band over the last several years. And it's always the same for me---I'll listen to a new EE album, and I'll like a couple of songs. Then I'll listen again, and I love a song and like more. By the 5th listen through, I love every song on the album, and my favorite song on the album goes through a rotation. It's astonishing that they have done this consistently on every single one of their albums. Magical.
I don’t know that it’s what the band intended, but “Your Money, My Summer” really hit me for the first time on break at my shitty food service job and the chorus made me think about myself vs those people at the top. Your socialist friend’s Ferrari joke gets at it too! The contrast of the almost taunting falsetto backing vocals with Higgs’ dejected delivery of “God knows I wanna go home.” The rich get to go on holiday all around the world while working class people are at work with the simple wish to just be at home. That feeling is enough to feel at home with the rest of the concept for me. Jonathan Higgs said that even without direct references to the mountain, most of the songs are the perspectives to people living in this “fictional” system. Really spelling out the metaphor for anyone who might somehow not see that we’re the Mountainheads.
I was so very hyped for the release of this album, and then it came out. On first listen I didn't even make it all the way through. Something about it just turned me off, and I thought "what a huge disappointment". On second listen (a few weeks later), I found I was actually loving some of the grooves and paid more attention to Jonathan's lyrics. However, I still felt disappointed. The last record was fantastic and Get to Heaven might be my favorite "rock" album of all time. I saw a lot of praise for the newest release, and was upset about not getting it on the first few tries.
I'm excited to give it another listen after watching this analysis. Thanks Prof.
Good in-depth review, glad you could appreciate the time and effort to bring lore to song and so well produced…. by the band themselves, no outside help, just like they did with Raw Data Feel.
Their Get to Heaven album. Give it a try. Couple tracks from that album are their go to encore songs for good reason.
ee, this band is my fav at the moment. great video !!!!!! thanks for reviewing the album. avaa.
AVAA - This is a great prelude to seeing them live again later this week(suprisingly one of the best live bands going) thanks again for the great work skye
I love how a EE review inevitably ends up talking about Thom Yorke and his Bono inspiration lol
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS. I didn't even watch yet, but AVAA, professor! Big love from Brazil!
banger peterson impression prof, AVAA
also +1 for repping zooropa! stay, lemon, the wanderer, all goat U2 tracks
AVAA! The level of thought you put into this review is wonderful, it's pretty clear you're an educator. I have really liked EE for a few years but the way you practically line by line and section by section analyzed it made me double backs and listen closely. Also I've gleaned you don't typically listen to older music from bands you have discovered, I think their third album is worth an exception to this as I can only imagine your analysis and enjoyment of it would match Raw Data Feel and Mountainhead.
I'm not as big on this album as you are, but (as per usual) your thoughts make me want to give it another spin. AVAA!
Wasn't expecting a Martin Sheffield Lickley reference!
I listen to all the Lickley episodes available on UA-cam about once a year.
AVAA! Day 1 of asking you to talk about Destiny by DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ.
could u post your videos in podcast form, I would really like to hear your videos during my commute to uni, thanks for the videos and have a nice day!
AAVA! Hi Prof, if you ever wanted to take on a really unique video, I suggest a short analysis of the song "チーム友達"(Team Friends) by KOHH, which has been blowing up in Japanese underground circles. This shouldn't require too much translation because most of the lyrics are just "team friends." I think it would be interesting because it fits your Carnival chant theory and I don't think you've analyzed much Asian music, which is absolutely relevant in this decade. P.S. I'm curious to hear more of your thoughts on Ayn Rand.. books in general!
Yeah they do have a guitarist and he also happens to be the guy who produces their songs since raw data feel! Ill comment properly when ive finished the video! Loving it so far ❤
Can't wait until you give yourself the time to listen to Get To Heaven their 2015 album. Truly my favorite in the style of dynamic pop tunes
Don't know if I will like this album but man this review was wild ... :) AVAA!
AVAA! I'd be more inclined to call Gang of Youths the new U2, but Everything Everything are certainly barking up the same tree!
AVAA, one of the best albums of the year for sure
He’s on fire in this one 😂. I am blasting through the end of The Fountainhead today
City Song is inspired by Mark Fisher?
That makes SO much sense...
I think you should read Fisher, an excellent 21st century philosopher. His work on Hauntology is not strictly nihilist, but observing the _spectres_ of economic libido and culture can open that door quite readily.
Read responsibly!
Also, I think you should listen to everything everything by Everything Everything. They've always been a top tier act.
AVAA!
AVAA I wish you could have enjoyed Mad DeMarco’s killer run of jangle-pop for his first five albums. I would call him one of the greats
So pumped! Just a little nitpick, the album is just "Mountainhead"!
Fixed! Thanks.
Yes
Great Band - I prefer their first three albums but they're still solid!
AOTY so far for me. Thanks for giving this a full review unlike someone... AVAA
AVAA Yes they are no question
every EE album is good !!!! whatever you do, you MUST listen to the song "NO REPTILES"
a guide to the other ee albums from me,,
man alive: i havent heard it yet!! but what i have heard is wild wacky off kilter mathy pop ridiculousness.
arc: incredibly vivid pop album about the apocalypse. "cough cough" and "the peaks" are so amazing. its more 'tasteful' so the band doesnt like it that much.
get to heaven: bright dancey bangers about killing the queen. every song goes hard, and the band really gets good at writing empathetically about society's most hated figures. if ur someone who hates themselves, this album might actually kind of help you.
a fever dream: super cohesive and atmospheric album which applies the same empathetic eyes to the political tensions in britain surrounding brexit. the singer seems to tie the tensions closely to his own emotional problems, so to me the album feels more "the personal is political" than theyve ever done.
reanimator: a great raw weird album, with some of the band's best songs (violent sun, arch enemy, lost powers, etc). has this weird liminal energy to the production and vibes. eternally underrated, the amnesiac of their discography. thematically drawing even more personal, literally exploring the nature of consciousness and human psychology.
yeah !!!! the band isnt for everyone, but if you like the last two albums so much, i really think you'd get a lot out of their other work. "get to heaven" is a safe bet for a next step!
AVAA! ❤
avaa =)
The mountain is a liie
Skye’s been binging Knowing Better! He’s just like me fr fr
I do love Knowing Better, but I haven’t watched it in a couple months. Funny