EVERYTHING EVERYTHING

A Fever Dream 6/10

Aiming for more cohesion than they managed on their three previous genre-mashing albums, Everything Everything still cannot quite contain their ungainly maximalist overload on A Fever Dream. Working with producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode), the Manchester-based quartet muster more rock muscle than usual here, hitting agreeable heights of soul-stirring melancholy on the Coldplay-esque electro-rock lament “Put Me Together” and the shimmering “Good Shot, Good Soldier”. But singer Jonathan Higgs is sometimes more liability than asset, piling up arch Alex Turner-ish wordplay in a strained falsetto over densely packed but graceless patchworks of rock, alt.pop and glitchy electronica. Commendable ambitions, uneven results.