EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - The End of the Contender

As they approach the March 1st release of their highly anticipated new album ‘Mountainhead’, art-pop innovators Everything Everything have enjoyed the biggest airplay hit of their career to date with its lead single ‘Cold Reactor’. Premiered on Clara Amfo’s show, the track has spent several weeks on the Radio 1 B-List, reached the heights of the Spotify Viral Top 50, and has spent several weeks in Shazam’s UK Top 200. All of these career best stats have been bookended with Jonathan Higgs joining Greg James for an interview alongside actor (and EE super fan) Paul Mescal (‘Normal People’, ‘All of Us Strangers’).

Now building on their fresh wave of discovery, Everything Everything share the follow-up single ‘The End of the Contender’. ‘The End of the Contender’ sees Jonathan Higgs’ flighty falsetto and staccato delivery ebbing-and-flowing around the band’s increasingly accessible art-pop style. Those traits – synths that sparkle like stars in the night sky, guitars that leap from the melodic into the hypnotic, and dense, pulsating rhythms – cast an instant allure in contrast to Jonathan’s thought-provoking and ever-esoteric lyricism.

Jonathan says, “This song is about the subject of a viral road rage video, Ronnie Pickering, who shot to (a certain kind of) fame by insisting on his own significance, repeatedly asking, ‘Do you know who I am? I'm Ronnie Pickering.’ An enraged former boxer trying to find his place in a world that doesn't remember his name.’’

‘The End of the Contender’, ‘Cold Reactor’ and ‘The Mad Stone’ collectively provide an insight into what to expect from the ‘Mountainhead’ album. Being Everything Everything, it’s a record united by a high concept metaphor: in this case, an alternate society in which those at the lowest rung of society’s ladder are forced to work relentlessly to keep its elite secure at the mountain’s peak. Produced by the band’s guitarist Alex Robertshaw alongside Tom A.D. Fuller under their shared pseudonym Kaines & Tom AD, it’s a collection that shows how Everything Everything has opened a world of new possibilities without losing any of the essence of their identity.

Everything Everything ended 2023 with touring which included North American headline shows, top billing at the Waves Festival, and an OVO Wembley Arena show as special guests to Nothing But Thieves.