Review Summary: Should've known that you'd do me wrong, should've known by the way you were showing off
Maturity. That’s the buzzword that’s being tossed around in reference to The Last Shadow Puppets’ highly anticipated sophomore release, and it’s a
massive pet peeve of mine. Go check almost any review of this record, and you’ll see the term carelessly strewn about in a positive context, as if to imply that
The Age of The Understatement was inherently juvenile pop and
this is the record that finally sees the band get it together. To suggest that simply toning down the theatrics and trying some new things is worthy of blind praise is, at the very least, imprudent.
Everything You’ve Come To Expect surely does both of these things, however it also abandons the raw intrigue and insane catchiness that skyrocketed The Last Shadow Puppets to automatic relevance back in 2008. The result is an album that, while decent, lacks any real reason to listen to it other than the fact that it’s an Alex Turner led supergroup. If you ask me, I’d say keep your damn maturity.
Everything You’ve Come To Expect is ironically titled for a couple of reasons – the first being that The Last Shadow Puppets don’t really have an expected output given that this marks only their second full-length release, and the other being that if there were any expectations built from the very well-received
The Age of The Understatement, this album basically turns them on their side. I’d say completely upside down, but that simply wouldn’t be true as many of the group’s trademark tactics remain firmly in place: the 1960s Brit-pop aura, the melodramatic instrumentation, the embellished production, et al. The main differences exist in a variety of subtle areas that together give the music an entirely different feel. The sweeping strings that made certain moments on
The Age of The Understatement feel like a vivid scene from a spy movie are relegated to the back of the mix (when they’re utilized at all), the drumming keeps the pace rather than establishing or driving it, and the vocals seem to sway leisurely to-and-fro rather than taking charge and dictating. To be fair these traits are a better match for the overall style of the album, but the problem I have with it is that when you add together all of these little deviations, they don’t result in anything engaging or memorable. Across the board, songs come and go with very little change in urgency, rhythm, or even melody. Resultantly,
Everything You’ve Come To Expect harbors something of a hazy, misted atmosphere. It’s not the worst thing these guys could have done, but it certainly pales in comparison to its predecessor’s larger-than-life leanings and conspiracy-laden narrative.
The Last Shadow Puppets give us a little bit of a scavenger hunt here in terms of finding the best material, with songs such as the head-scratching lead single ‘Bad Habits’ and the flat-out tedious title track hindering the progress of some of the record’s lower profile moments. The opening set of tracks comprises a surprisingly strong trifecta, though, opening with the ruminating, mystery-bound ‘Aviation’ and rounding things out with the hair-raisingly eerie chorus of ‘Dracula Teeth’, “You’re hovering above my bed / looking down on me.” Unfortunately, it’s mostly downhill from there, as Turner and company drag us through the aforementioned snooze fest of a title track, followed by a long string of unremarkable exercises in generic alt-rock (‘The Element of Surprise’, ‘Sweet Dreams TN’, ‘Used To Be My Girl’). At least there’s a bit of an upswing at the back-end of the record, as the outro sequence on ‘She Does The Woods’ brings back some of the interesting strings of yesteryear while the closer ‘The Dream Synopsis’ is everything the title track tries to be and isn’t – imaginative, emotional, and cool handed.
Everything You’ve Come To Expect does little to cash in on the anticipation mounted by an eight year wait time. Small improvements have been made across the board, particularly on the ballads, but it’s hard not to feel like the energy has been sucked out of the room by The Last Shadow Puppets’ refusal to vary the pace. The record flows forth like a dream, which is intriguing until you’re nine tracks deep and still listening to songs at the exact same tempo. The bookends of this record show flashes of potential – with gems sprinkled in between – but far and wide, this is a disappointingly vanilla offering from a group that has already proven itself to be capable of ensnaring our minds and ears. If you’re looking for a silver lining, though, at least these guys have matured.
