EVERYTHING EVERYTHING
RAW DATA FEEL
INFINITY INDUSTRIES
★★
Jonathan Higgs has never been a stranger to curious lyrics treading a fine line between the absurd and the ingenious, but his decision to collaborate with Artificial Intelligence on Everything Everything’s sixth album can only be described – diplomatically, at least – as a misstep. Some might argue he’s employed a technological update of William Burroughs’ cut-andpaste techniques, but here this feels like the last, desperate refuge of the uninspired. Try as one might, there’s frankly no joy to be found in a falsetto wailing “Here where the lamprey lies/ It ate a lot of French fries”, as he does rather gormlessly on the fidgety Hex, while Metroland Is Burning’s “The escalator breathing in a hydra howl” isn’t half as clever as it thinks.