Everything Everything – Arc

Everything Everything's mission statement is to make pop music that sounds like no one else – a mantra the Manchester-based band have regularly trotted out in interviews since gaining national attention with the multi-faceted Man Alive two years ago. Yet for all their eagerness to experiment, they remain firmly a product of their times; the combination of crashing bass drum, urgent synth lines and pleading falsetto that comprises lead track Cough Cough characterises the predominant sound of the late noughties.

Still, the quartet's playful desire to mix things up regularly shines through here, as on forthcoming single Kemosabe – a thrilling electro-pop stramash that's every bit the equal of their debut. However, the initial spark is tempered by more sedate and reflective songs like The Peaks and _Arc_, that simply struggle to ignite. The sum is not the work of a band intent on playing it safe, but neither is it quite the adventure that their outlook suggests.