''Everything You've Come to Expect'' is the second album by English
supergroup Supergroup or super group may refer to:
* Supergroup (music), a music group formed by artists who are already notable or respected in their fields
* Supergroup (physics), a generalization of groups, used in the study of supersymmetry
* Supergroup ...
The Last Shadow Puppets
The Last Shadow Puppets are an English supergroup consisting of Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), Miles Kane ( The Rascals, solo artist), James Ford (Simian, Simian Mobile Disco, music producer), and Zach Dawes ( Mini Mansions). The band releas ...
, released on 1 April 2016 by
Domino Recording Company
Domino Recording Company or simply Domino is a British independent record label based in London. There is also a wing of the label based in Brooklyn, New York that handles releases in the United States, as well as a German division called Dom ...
. It was written by band co-frontmen Alex Turner and Miles Kane in 2015. It was produced in Malibu by fellow member
James Ford, alongside guest musician
Matt Helders
Matthew Helders (born 7 May 1986) is an English drummer, vocalist and songwriter. He is best known as a founding member of the indie rock band Arctic Monkeys, with whom he has recorded seven studio albums.
In 2015, Helders collaborated with Ig ...
, and new bass player,
Zach Dawes
Zachary Edwin Dawes (born July 2, 1985) is an American musician, producer, engineer, and technician, best known as the bassist for the bands Mini Mansions and The Last Shadow Puppets. He has also made contributions to music by Brian Wilson, L ...
. Featuring again string arrangements by
Owen Pallett
Michael James Owen Pallett (born September 7, 1979) is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Under their erstwhile moniker of Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album ''He Poos Clouds''. Pallet ...
. The album artwork features a photo of singer
Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer o ...
dancing, as photographed by
Jack Robinson Jack Robinson may refer to:
Sportspeople
*Jack Robinson (catcher) (1880–1921), American baseball player
*Jack Robinson (footballer, born 1870) (1870–1931), England, Derby County and Southampton football goalkeeper
* Jack Robinson (footballer, ...
in November 1969, the original picture was modified by illustrator Matthew Cooper, who gave it a gold tint.
''Everything You've Come to Expect'' exchanges the understated sound of the first record for a more
maximalist
In the arts, maximalism, a reaction against minimalism, is an aesthetic of excess. The philosophy can be summarized as "more is more", contrasting with the minimalist motto "less is more".
Literature
The term ''maximalism'' is sometimes associ ...
production. It features a wide array of genres that include
baroque pop
Baroque pop (sometimes called baroque rock) is a fusion genre that combines rock music with particular elements of classical music. It emerged in the mid 1960s as artists pursued a majestic, orchestral sound and is identifiable for its appropria ...
,
blue-eyed soul, and
psychedelic pop
Psychedelic pop (or acid pop) is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the late 1960s, elements included " trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, ...
. It also draws influence from
desert rock,
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
and
Italian film scores. Its lyrical content explores themes of
hedonism
Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decr ...
,
romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
, and
self doubt, against the backdrop of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
and its surroundings.
Following its release, the album was promoted by the singles "
Bad Habits" and "
Aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...
", as well as a global tour and multiple television appearances.
Background and recording
In an interview with Live4Ever, co-lead vocalist Alex Turner explained that the album originated from songwriting with fellow vocalist Miles Kane with the two quickly then feeling the desire to revive the project. The album was recorded in the summer of 2015 in
Rick Rubin
Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records.
Rubin helped popula ...
's Shangri La Studios in
Malibu, California
Malibu ( ; es, Malibú; Chumash: ) is a beach city in the Santa Monica Mountains region of Los Angeles County, California, situated about west of Downtown Los Angeles. It is known for its Mediterranean climate and its strip of the Malibu ...
.
The band explained it to be the second installment in a trilogy of albums to be released by the band. After speculation about work on the album sparked by a tweet from arranger
Owen Pallett
Michael James Owen Pallett (born September 7, 1979) is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Under their erstwhile moniker of Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album ''He Poos Clouds''. Pallet ...
, album producer
James Ford stated in November 2015 that the album had been finished.
In an interview with ''
LA Weekly
''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose paren ...
'', the band stated that the orchestra featured on the album was recorded in Hollywood studio
United Recording.
Composition
Musical style and influences
The album has been compared to the works of
Jean-Claude Vannier
Jean-Claude Vannier (born 1943) is a French musician, composer and arranger. Vannier has composed music, written lyrics, and produced albums for many singers.
Vannier is regarded as an important musician in his native country; music critic Andy V ...
,
Serge Gainsbourg
Serge Gainsbourg (; born Lucien Ginsburg; 2 April 1928 – 2 March 1991) was a French musician, singer-songwriter, actor, author and filmmaker. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provoca ...
,
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwri ...
,
The Replacements,
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...
,
Beck
Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi music, lo-fi style, and became ...
, and
Scott Walker,
.
In an interview with ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'', the Last Shadow Puppets stated that their songwriting was influenced by
Isaac Hayes
Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. (August 20, 1942 – August 10, 2008) was an American singer, actor, songwriter, and composer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records, where he served both as an in-house songwri ...
and
The Style Council
The Style Council were a British musical ensemble, band formed in late 1982 by Paul Weller, the former singer, songwriter and guitarist with the punk rock/New wave music, new wave/mod revival band the Jam, and keyboardist Mick Talbot, previousl ...
, as opposed to the
Scott Walker influences of their first album.
The band also mentioned,
Sparks and
Ned Doheny
Patrick Anson Doheny "Ned" Doheny (born March 26, 1948) is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist from Malibu, California, who has recorded eight albums and has performed with other artists including Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagl ...
's
"Get It Up for Love" as inspiration, aswell as,
Tears For Fears
Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath, England, in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, Tears for Fears were associated with the new wav ...
,
Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode are an English electronic music band formed in Basildon, Essex, in 1980. The band currently consists of Dave Gahan (lead vocals and co-songwriting) and Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, co-lead vocals and main songwriting).
Depeche ...
, and
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music band formed in Braintree, Essex, in 1990 by producer, keyboard player and songwriter Liam Howlett. The original line-up also featured dancer and singer Keith Flint and dancer and occasional l ...
as bands they were listening to at the time.
Turner further cited the bass line to
Sonic's Rendezvous Band
Sonic's Rendezvous Band (or SRB) was an American rock and roll band from Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, forming in 1974, featuring veterans of the 1960s Detroit rock scene.
Background
Sonic's Rendezvous Band came from the ashes of four Mic ...
’s “City Slang” as a heavy inspiration for "Bad Habits".
Lyrics and themes
Lyrically, the album main themes are
hedonism
Hedonism refers to a family of theories, all of which have in common that pleasure plays a central role in them. ''Psychological'' or ''motivational hedonism'' claims that human behavior is determined by desires to increase pleasure and to decr ...
,
romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
, and
self doubt.
With the songs alluding to:
Sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...
and
free love
Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues were the concern ...
,
recreational drug use
Recreational drug use indicates the use of one or more psychoactive drugs to induce an altered state of consciousness either for pleasure or for some other casual purpose or pastime by modifying the perceptions and emotions of the user. When a ...
,
prostitution
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
,
jealousy
Jealousy generally refers to the thoughts or feelings of insecurity, fear, and concern over a relative lack of possessions or safety.
Jealousy can consist of one or more emotions such as anger, resentment, inadequacy, helplessness or disgust. ...
,
dreams
A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...
, and
homoerotic imagery. The album setting revolves around Los Angeles and the West Coast, and includes references to the neighbourhood of
Los Feliz
LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation
* Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers
* Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...
, and cities outside the United States, such as
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...
, and
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
.
Turner thought the lyrics on this record were "more effective and more refined", than the ones on their debut.
Album art
The album art consists of a photo of singer
Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer o ...
dancing, as photographed by
Jack Robinson Jack Robinson may refer to:
Sportspeople
*Jack Robinson (catcher) (1880–1921), American baseball player
*Jack Robinson (footballer, born 1870) (1870–1931), England, Derby County and Southampton football goalkeeper
* Jack Robinson (footballer, ...
in November 1969 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Alex Turner had a réplica of the photograph, which was gifted to him by a friend, hanging in his kitchen for many years. Both him and Kane chose the image, as they thought that it would make a great album cover.
After the record was done they got in touch with Tina Turner's team and she agreed. Illustrator Matthew Cooper modified the original image and gave it a gold tint.
Cooper told the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
:
“The idea was to move the artwork on from the ’60s feel of the first Last Shadow Puppets album artwork, so here is Tina on the very cusp of the 1970s”.
The record cover beat ''
to win the prize for best album artwork 2016. The prize was organised by Art Vinyl.
''Everything You've Come to Expect'' received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. At
score of 70, based on 28 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
'' noted the album's experimental nature, and wrote that the album "improves over time."
'' said "The album is never tortuous or boring", and felt it's quality was on par with the band members principal works, as they all devoted themselves to the record. He also thought the album "feels necessary within the context of all their careers".
, thought the album was less musically focused than their first record, but also, "less inclined to lapse into straightforward pastiche." He wasn't that complimentary to the lyrics either, saying, "You can detect something a bit distasteful in their worldview: an arrogance and entitlement that all that clever wordplay can’t quite cover."
Credits adapted from album liner notes.
– backing vocals
Production
* James Ford – production
* Sean Oakley – engineering
* Ross Hogarth – orchestra recording
*
– mixing
* Brian Lucey – mastering
Artwork
* Matthew Cooper – design
* Jack Robinson – cover photography
* Zackery Michael – booklet photography
*
– arrangement, conducting
* Eric Gorfrain – violin
* Marisa Kuney – violin
* Amy Wickman – violin
* Daphne Chen – violin
* Gina Kronstadt – violin
* Alwyn Wright – violin
* Chris Woods – violin
* Leah Katz – violin
* Rodney Wirtz – viola
* Richard Dodd – cello
* John Krovoza – cello
* Peggy Baldwin – cello
* Ian Walker – contrabass
* Chris Bautista – violin
* Stephanie O'Keefe – French horn
* Sara Andon – flute
* Nick Daley – violin