Everything Everything have described their new album, ‘Poison Pop’, as an attempt to grapple with the pressures and uncertainty of modern life. In an interview with NME, frontman Jonathan Higgs said the record reflects concerns including social media, online rage-bait and AI-generated art, while wrestling with the temptation to accept what he called the “enshittification” of the world around us.
The British band’s eighth album follows 2024’s ‘Mountainhead’, which Higgs described as more abstract and built around a metaphor. By contrast, ‘Poison Pop’ is intended to be more direct and forceful. The group returned to a faster, punk-leaning approach after revisiting their earlier material while touring to mark 10 years of ‘Get To Heaven’ last year.
Higgs said that anniversary brought the band back into contact with the aggression of their 2015 album. “In some sense, that got us in the mood to make another fast record,” he told NME, adding that he wanted the new music to feel like “a slap-in-the-face”.
The album’s title track captures the record’s recurring theme of addiction, Higgs said. “It’s about this drink that kills you, but you still want it.” He compared that idea to “Blood Radio”, a song about a station that provokes anger in its listeners, even as they keep tuning in. Rather than deliver a single argument, he said, the album reflects the conflicting messages and chaos of the present.
The band also took more time choosing the songs than they have in the past. Higgs said they rejected around 80 or 90 tracks during the process. Once they had narrowed the selection to about 20, he and guitarist Alex Robertshaw asked the other members to choose the final songs.
On AI, Higgs said his views continue to change. He sees it as a potentially useful artistic tool, but does not believe it can reproduce what he does as well as a human artist. He also suggested that human-made work could become more valuable as AI-generated material becomes more widespread. The band, he added, increasingly consider how songs will translate to a live show, an area where they believe human performance remains distinct.
Looking back at ‘Get To Heaven’, Higgs said its songs have grown more resonant since their release. He described the album as a warning about what might happen over the following decade and said he wished its predictions had proved wrong. The band has no immediate plans to mark the 10th anniversary of 2016’s ‘A Fever Dream’, though Higgs did not rule out doing something in the future.
‘Poison Pop’ is due out on March 12. Higgs said he hopes listeners find a sense of connection in the new music, particularly at a time when he feels it is becoming harder to connect with others.
Sources: NME.