Everything Everything - Final Form - Man Alive
I got to this band through the song "Qwerty Finger" (btw that was really fun to type) [Spotify link & Youtube link]. It was free single of the week on iTunes I don't even know when, probs around 2010 when this album came out. At that time I wasn't really interested, and dismissed it as being too eccentric. I was then introduced to "MY KZ, UR BF" [Spotify link & Youtube link]. First off, I went back to my original thoughts in thinking it was just a little bit weird, but it wouldn't get out of my head, and it hooked me in! I didn't hear anything else from this band for a while, I hadn't done any research into their debut album, "Man Alive", but the impending release of their second album, "Arc", due to be released on the 14th of January, has brought me back round to them. If you haven't heard "Cough Cough", get on it IMMEDIATELY. I'll make it easy for you, click here for the Spotify link, and click here for the Youtube link. You won't regret it.
So I finally decided to go back through the album "Man Alive" [Spotify - whole album]. Of the whole album, I found I really liked "Schoolin'", which is a lot of fun and quite cheeky, but I absolutely LOVED this song, "Final Form". I've given you quite a lot of links to peruse because that stuff is like quintessential Everything Everything, kind of skewiff but it all still works brilliantly. So, if you haven't heard them before then you'll understand, because this track is a bit different.
It's slightly more melancholy I think, and sinister isn't the right word but there's something a little bit dark or unnerving about it. If you think of the right word, PLEASE comment at the bottom, I'm gonna be thinking over this for ages. The band had this to say about the track, you can find it on the Youtube link:
“Our fourth single from Man Alive is Final Form, which is mostly concerned with the idea of a withering body, and your ability/inability to use it.”
I then found this on the internet search app, Cha Cha:
“The meaning of the lyrics to ‘Final Form’ is it’s about a friend of Jonathan Higgs [singer]. He couldn’t move for much of his short life, but he always had a smile for everybody. His name is Greg.”
:(
The vocals are very different to begin with as well. Higgs' usual style is to sing pretty high, in the range that most guys can't reach. Fair play to you Jonny. In this song, he starts off by singing in a regular male range, and then going back to his higher register after the first verse.
The song starts off with a simple guitar riff that becomes the main motif throughout the song, which, by itself, sounds major, so when the bass and vocals then join in the song becomes [INSERT APPROPRIATE ADJECTIVE HERE]. I'll stay with dark for the time being. The bass is like a chugging sound, gearing us up to something. It's a really good rhythm.
The first verse lyrics sound like this:
"What is that incessant humming? Coming from your manga maw?
Oh, you breathe twin towers, oh - you gave your powers up.
....and I can't teach you how to stop it, and you can't make me understand
Break, the withered habit, mmm - I need your rabid smile"
That first line sounds like someone who is really exhausted and irritable, as though they've had to put up with something for a while, and the tiniest little thing is pissing them off. Which would coincide with the meaning behind the song. I have no idea what a "manga maw" is though, so again, if you've got any ideas, please let me know at the bottom of the page.
The drums come in just before the line "and I can't teach you how to stop it". They are syncopated, aggressive and sharp. Higgs moans Ohh over this into this line, at which point he goes back up into his normal register. After that verse there's this bridge bit, preparing us for the chorus:
"Your home, (with the family wife and child and wife and)
Your head, (days in the cemetery come the calm the calm the)
Take form, (Time as your figure becomes the stone the stone your)
First body, Last body"
Backing vocals join us on this part, the rest of the band singing the lyrics in brackets. The rhythm of the singing also has an awesome rhythm, it's really interesting. There's also an introduction of synths. This is all dropped, bar the beginning guitar riff and the vocals on the "First body, Last body" part. The drums give us a brief introduction into the chorus:
"I wish the summer was over us in bursts
We're in the middle of nothing we can hold
and the sewers erupting life in gold
I'm gonna happen and happen until my whole give up the ghost
I'm gonna renew my sinew until my cells divide no more"
It's so beautiful musically. It almost becomes an entity of it's own, leading the band in which notes and rhythms to play. The lyrics confused me before I'd researched the back story, but now they're incredibly sad, wistful.
We're then back to that guitar riff which leads us into the next verse:
"So lean me up and take a picture, I can't move my legs and arms
It's too much information, too - much to be thinking of
and each of us have separate houses, and each of us have separate souls
and some of us do nothing, some - some of us do nothing more
Your home, (sleep as your figure becomes the stone, the stone, the)
Your head, (time with the family, sleep the wheel, the tomb, the)
Take form, (dance with the atrophy cold and warm and warm your)
First body, Last body"
Again, slightly wistful, longing.
The chorus has a difference in lyrics as well:
"I wish the cesspit would open like a bible
I wish the rotten would blossom with the tidal
and, I've never been able to divide us
I'm gonna wrestle and wrangle until my legs become unreal
I'm gonna stumble and scramble my way to lactic ecstasy"
Slightly more aggressive.
After this chorus is a new type of something. It's introduced by a single bass note, and Higgs is back to his kind of almost yowly style of singing in this part. It's a bit lighter, unlike the rest of the song, but it's kind of a red herring, as the lyrics are still dark:
"Yet while I can slumber, rest, move so slowly
It's creeping across his chest, like some cold weed
He's not as afraid as me, like some dancer"
The guitar motif is subtley singing under everything else, and it all becomes slightly more intense again and heavier. All the instruments are really going for it, and Higgs is singing "My home, my head, take form", and it's really passionate, there's a lot of feeling coming out.
He finishes the song in this really intensely passionate way, and you can really tell he's feeling what he's saying as he repeats both of the choruses twice. At the end, there's this kind of distorted sound with Jonathan singing distantly over the top. It completely drops the moment that the song has created.
Spotify:
Youtube:
Cheers guys, let me know what you think :)
So I finally decided to go back through the album "Man Alive" [Spotify - whole album]. Of the whole album, I found I really liked "Schoolin'", which is a lot of fun and quite cheeky, but I absolutely LOVED this song, "Final Form". I've given you quite a lot of links to peruse because that stuff is like quintessential Everything Everything, kind of skewiff but it all still works brilliantly. So, if you haven't heard them before then you'll understand, because this track is a bit different.
 |
| Courtesy of: http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnus_d/4599121125/ |
It's slightly more melancholy I think, and sinister isn't the right word but there's something a little bit dark or unnerving about it. If you think of the right word, PLEASE comment at the bottom, I'm gonna be thinking over this for ages. The band had this to say about the track, you can find it on the Youtube link:
“Our fourth single from Man Alive is Final Form, which is mostly concerned with the idea of a withering body, and your ability/inability to use it.”
I then found this on the internet search app, Cha Cha:
“The meaning of the lyrics to ‘Final Form’ is it’s about a friend of Jonathan Higgs [singer]. He couldn’t move for much of his short life, but he always had a smile for everybody. His name is Greg.”
:(
The vocals are very different to begin with as well. Higgs' usual style is to sing pretty high, in the range that most guys can't reach. Fair play to you Jonny. In this song, he starts off by singing in a regular male range, and then going back to his higher register after the first verse.
The song starts off with a simple guitar riff that becomes the main motif throughout the song, which, by itself, sounds major, so when the bass and vocals then join in the song becomes [INSERT APPROPRIATE ADJECTIVE HERE]. I'll stay with dark for the time being. The bass is like a chugging sound, gearing us up to something. It's a really good rhythm.
The first verse lyrics sound like this:
"What is that incessant humming? Coming from your manga maw?
Oh, you breathe twin towers, oh - you gave your powers up.
....and I can't teach you how to stop it, and you can't make me understand
Break, the withered habit, mmm - I need your rabid smile"
That first line sounds like someone who is really exhausted and irritable, as though they've had to put up with something for a while, and the tiniest little thing is pissing them off. Which would coincide with the meaning behind the song. I have no idea what a "manga maw" is though, so again, if you've got any ideas, please let me know at the bottom of the page.
The drums come in just before the line "and I can't teach you how to stop it". They are syncopated, aggressive and sharp. Higgs moans Ohh over this into this line, at which point he goes back up into his normal register. After that verse there's this bridge bit, preparing us for the chorus:
"Your home, (with the family wife and child and wife and)
Your head, (days in the cemetery come the calm the calm the)
Take form, (Time as your figure becomes the stone the stone your)
First body, Last body"
Backing vocals join us on this part, the rest of the band singing the lyrics in brackets. The rhythm of the singing also has an awesome rhythm, it's really interesting. There's also an introduction of synths. This is all dropped, bar the beginning guitar riff and the vocals on the "First body, Last body" part. The drums give us a brief introduction into the chorus:
"I wish the summer was over us in bursts
We're in the middle of nothing we can hold
and the sewers erupting life in gold
I'm gonna happen and happen until my whole give up the ghost
I'm gonna renew my sinew until my cells divide no more"
It's so beautiful musically. It almost becomes an entity of it's own, leading the band in which notes and rhythms to play. The lyrics confused me before I'd researched the back story, but now they're incredibly sad, wistful.
We're then back to that guitar riff which leads us into the next verse:
"So lean me up and take a picture, I can't move my legs and arms
It's too much information, too - much to be thinking of
and each of us have separate houses, and each of us have separate souls
and some of us do nothing, some - some of us do nothing more
Your home, (sleep as your figure becomes the stone, the stone, the)
Your head, (time with the family, sleep the wheel, the tomb, the)
Take form, (dance with the atrophy cold and warm and warm your)
First body, Last body"
Again, slightly wistful, longing.
The chorus has a difference in lyrics as well:
"I wish the cesspit would open like a bible
I wish the rotten would blossom with the tidal
and, I've never been able to divide us
I'm gonna wrestle and wrangle until my legs become unreal
I'm gonna stumble and scramble my way to lactic ecstasy"
Slightly more aggressive.
After this chorus is a new type of something. It's introduced by a single bass note, and Higgs is back to his kind of almost yowly style of singing in this part. It's a bit lighter, unlike the rest of the song, but it's kind of a red herring, as the lyrics are still dark:
"Yet while I can slumber, rest, move so slowly
It's creeping across his chest, like some cold weed
He's not as afraid as me, like some dancer"
The guitar motif is subtley singing under everything else, and it all becomes slightly more intense again and heavier. All the instruments are really going for it, and Higgs is singing "My home, my head, take form", and it's really passionate, there's a lot of feeling coming out.
He finishes the song in this really intensely passionate way, and you can really tell he's feeling what he's saying as he repeats both of the choruses twice. At the end, there's this kind of distorted sound with Jonathan singing distantly over the top. It completely drops the moment that the song has created.
Spotify:
Youtube:
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