After a 27-year hiatus since their last collaboration, David Byrne and Brian Eno return with Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, which they dub an "electronic gospel" record that is sure to leave most yawning.
Don't get me wrong: the album has glimmers of hope. The theme of man struggling to cope with an increasingly technological world creates interesting implications. The fact that Eno and Byrne call their creation an electronic album could be considered valiant, as they stare down that which aims to replace them.
On the other hand, some may see the move as waving a white flag, the two musicians reluctantly accepting the new avant-garde and refusing to make the effort to define it on their own terms.
It seems as if Byrne and Eno may have bitten off more than they can chew. In trying to create an album that is rooted in their past successes while embracing a new form of expression, the result is an unsatisfactory amalgamation. On the title track, "Everything That Happens," Byrne explains it pretty well: "Nothing has changed, but nothing's the same/and every tomorrow will be yesterday."
"Strange Overtones" showcases Byrne's eerie vocals and Eno's funky beats, and believe me, it sounds great. But again, Eno makes my job easy: "This groove is out of fashion/These beats are 20 years old."
Ultimately, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is haunted by the creators' previous masterpiece, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. "I Feel My Stuff" is probably as good as it gets on this one. In its six minutes of changing tempo and feel, Eno and Byrne do try to experiment, but it's all the same experiment we saw from them decades ago... which means it's no longer an experiment, guys. The results are in, and it's mediocre by a landslide. Definitely nothing worth blogging about.
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