Everything Everything at New Century

Johnny James, Managing Editor

Book now

Everything Everything

New Century, Manchester
23 March 2024

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Everything Everything by Steve Gullick.
Book now

In support of their new album Mountainhead, Manchester’s own Everything Everything are playing two shows at New Century in March.

No one does it quite like Everything Everything. Weaving dystopian, Black Mirror-style concepts into songs that find the sweet spot between esoteric experimentation and art pop accessibility, the band’s music is as infectious as it is thought-provoking.

Formed in Manchester in 2007, the band (Jonathan Higgs, Jeremy Pritchard, Michael Spearman and Alex Niven, since replaced by Alex Robertshaw) shot out of the blocks with their wildcard debut album Man Alive. Thrilling some and confounding others, it fused math rock with glitchy electronica and bizarro pop, with Jonathan Higgs’ elastic vocals pinging between octaves on top. It sounded nothing like the identikit indie bands of the time, and rightly earned them a Mercury Prize nomination.

By degrees, their follow-up albums (2013’s Arc, 2015’s Get To Heaven and 2017’s Mercury-nominated A Fever Dream) dialled back the freneticism and let the hooks do the talking. The lyrics, though, were as dense as ever, each record conceptualising a different facet of mankind’s desperate self-destruction, often centred on technology. 2019’s Raw Data Feel followed suit, with the band feeding everything from 4Chan forum posts to the teachings of Confucius into an AI program, using its responses as a basis for the lyrics and titles.

The new album, Mountainhead, readying for launch on 1 March 2024, imagines an alternate society in which those at the lowest rung of society’s ladder are forced to work relentlessly to keep its elite elevated. While it’s an idea that looks to a nightmarish future, it’s full of metaphors for our current existence, from capitalism and environmentalism to religion and celebrity worship.

We’ve heard two tunes so far, both with an art pop heart coloured by an array of off-kilter production touches and alt pop accessibility. The first earworm single ‘Cold Reactor’ laments a world lived through screens, where interaction is based on cookie cutter emojis, which represent but are in fact devoid of human emotion. The second single ‘Mad Stone’, gets into the meat of Mountainhead’s concept, which Jonathan Higgs recently laid out:

“In another world, society has built an immense mountain. To make the mountain bigger, they must make the hole they live in deeper and deeper. All of society is built around the creation of the mountain, and a mountain religion dominates all thought. At the top of the mountain is rumoured to be a huge mirror that reflects endlessly recurring images of the self, and at the bottom of the pit is a giant golden snake that is the primal fear of all believers. A ‘Mountainhead’ is one who believes the mountain must grow no matter the cost, and no matter how terrible it is to dwell in the great pit. The taller the mountain, the deeper the hole.”

Mountainhead will be another flagpole placed on a never-ending quest to bring experimentation and ambition back to pop music, and from what we’ve heard so far, it’ll be another fantastic album that speaks to both the head and the heart. We can’t wait to hear it, and to catch their homecoming shows at Manchester’s New Century, on 29 and 30 March.

Where to go near Everything Everything at New Century

Image of the outside of Altogether Otherwise at night with people inside
Manchester
Event venue
Altogether Otherwise

Altogether Otherwise is a haven of activity where all are encouraged to make, do, dance, read and enjoy pursuing creativity with no pressure.

Manchester
Event venue
Old Bank Residency

The Old Bank Residency is a twelve-month occupation of a disused bank, allowing a space for creative practices to experiment, collaborate and grow. This project is funded and supported by NOMA to make Manchester an even more interesting place to be.

The exterior of The Pilcrow
Manchester
Bar or Pub
Sadler’s Cat

The Pilcrow is now Sadler’s Cat, a contemporary community pub at the heart of the NOMA neighbourhood. Overlooking Sadler’s Yard.

City Centre
Restaurant
Allpress
at NOMA

Allpress at NOMA is a home to all things coffee, with a café and seasonal menu incorporating locally sourced ingredients.

City Centre
Restaurant
Ciaooo – Pizzeria

Calling all pizza lovers, this hipster hotspot is going to be your own slice of heaven. Slow-rising sour dough pizzas and a great selection of cocktails, all at fabulous prices.

City Centre
Event venue
Sadler’s Yard

Sadlers Yard is a public square and events space in Manchester from NOMA Mcr. Home of the Pilcrow Pub and PLANT NOMA.

Manchester
Restaurant
Mackie Mayor

A Grade II listed market building in the Northern Quarter, Mackie Mayor is a key fixture in the ever-growing Northern Quarter food and drink scene.

Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art CFCCA by Michael Pollard
Manchester
Gallery
esea contemporary

Regarded as the UK’s leading organisation for East and Southeast Asian art, esea contemporary is opening its doors again on 18 February 2023 in Manchester.

What's on: Music

Barbara Dane
CinemaManchester
Kinofilm/ Soul on Sunday at Nia Centre

Kinofilm present a special screening of documentary The Nine Lives of Barbara Dane as part of Soul on Sunday an all-day event celebrating Northern Soul at the Nia Centre.

From £8.00
A black woman sat down looking to the left.
Until
MusicLeeds
Sound Out Leeds 2024/25

Leeds International Concert Season is on a mission to push boundaries, expand horizons, and ask the question: ‘What haven’t we heard?’ as it presents its city-spanning Sound Out Leeds series.

From £10.00
Aisla dancing and Dj'ing
ActivityAncoats
Become A Superstar DJ

Get hands on with the decks in this funk and soul superstar DJ workshop from BBC Radio 6’s Ailsa.

Free entry

Culture Guides

A young boy with a white sash around his left arm cries.
Cinema in the North

Outdoor cinema announcements, a major retrospective at HOME, and the best of indie cinema.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

Experimental performance, thought-provoking new writing and our picks of Manchester International Festival - here’s what’s taking centre stage this summer.

Isabel Galleymore in conversation
Literature Events in the North

There's a lot of experimentation going on in our Literature guide, from poets playing with form to short story writers looking long.

Music in the North

Gigs are coming in hot this spring – from long-awaited returns to one-off happenings you’ll blink and miss if you're not careful.

Experience a unique deep listening art installation inviting audiences to lay down and be bathed in sound and light.
Exhibitions in the North

From city-wide art festivals to open-air sculptural installations, we have exhibitions from all around the North, both indoors and out.