As the world spent the last week staring wistfully through our windows, Everything Everything made us long for the great outdoors. Since Monday, the band’s social media accounts had been feeding us snippets of a sun-drenched sky filled with the singing of birds. By tapping into the desires of a housebound audience, our anticipation for the idyllic haven they were promising had reached breaking point.
But last night, when the video for their latest song actually arrived, its visuals were so disturbing we were left wondering if we were better off not knowing what lay in store. This morbid fascination with the idea that ignorance may really be bliss, lies at the heart of Everything Everything’s newest single, “In Birdsong“.
According to NME, frontman Jonathan Higgs said in a statement the song “tries to imagine what it would have been like to have been the first self-aware human”. While some might see consciousness as humanity’s liberation from animal instinct, the Manchester band stay true to form by recasting the moment as an existential horror Lovecraft would be proud of. “I cannot begin to understand/The slaughter in the sky” Higgs wails, as undulating bodies encased in glossy bubbles disintegrate in digital vistas, “There’s something in the white matter”.
'In Birdsong' OUT NOW. Watch/Listen here: https://t.co/1ptEWYahAB pic.twitter.com/YurnMyqcLL
— EverythingEverything (@E_E_) April 24, 2020
In that same statement, Higgs revealed the band had not initially intended to share the track so soon, though “in the age of coronavirus, we wanted to be responsive to the changed landscape, and ‘In Birdsong’ unexpectedly emerged as the most appropriate song to reappear with”. As of yet, the single has not been attached to a new album, though given the group have already indicated their next project will be out in 2020, it’s likely we’ll see “In Birdsong“ appear on their upcoming fifth LP.
The song’s music video, directed by Higgs, premiered on the band’s YouTube channel at 8pm last night. Watch it below:
