Record Review: The Everybodyfields

The Everybodyfields – Nothing Is Okay, (Ramseur.2007)



The so-called alt.country sub-meta-genre was hailed as a movement that was certain to bring credibility to country radio and transcend boundaries to rock radio. Naturally, those predictions were severly overstated, unrealistic, and naive. This music is too honky-tonk for rock radio and too raucous for mainstream country radio. What's a purveyor of weepy pedal steels and filthy guitar licks to do? Just keep on, I suppose. That is exactly what The Everybodyfields do on this twelve song slab of down-on-yer-luck balladeering and no-depression rock-n-rolling.

The first two tracks are wonderful key performance indicators for this debut full-length. “Aeroplane” is acoustic-guitar driven-violin-moaning skit ad scuttle. Sam Quinn, the male portion of the band's principals, delivers a melody that drawls and intertwines with Jill Andrew's smooth countermelodies. The song drives like a lazy cool Sunday. The next tune, "Lonely Anywhere", has Andrews take the lead with one of the prettiest, most languid melodies, you discerning music listener know, that makes alt.country ballads so sublimely sad and rich. “I can be lohhhhnlee … here,” she drops the “here” with such exhausted resignation.

“Don’t Turn Around” is a noisy track filled with dynamics that stretch and strain, tighten and release, it may be familiar, but it’s more than well executed. The best part is the way Quinn and Andrews emphasize the loudest portions with the most curious of duets. The waltz-y shuffle of “Wasted Time” is a tale of dysfunctional loss and melancholy acceptance (when she sings, “I guess nothin’ will make this right … / … I’ll call it wasted tiiie-ya-ime”, it’s absolutely perfect). Andrews channels a number of singers from Patsy Cline to Kelly Willis. There is no transition from this song to the next, “Everything Is Okay”. This is the record’s ultimate perfect mark – the folky-country of “Wasted Time” shifts no-lie-seamlessly. It isn’t until five or so bars later you realize the tempo is different, the song is different. The crescendo/descrescendo repetition is a money move, that is ever-so-slightly unsettling for such an achingly emotional song.

The sheer amount of movement – in tempo, in vocalization, in paradox/dichotomy – is what makes Nothing Is Okay a truly compelling record. You can put the record on and let it roll; or you can pick and choose specific tracks to crank up or sink deep into the sofa. This movement is pure and rich with emotion, something that much alt.country attempts to conjure via imitation. It’s that there is something real in these songs, reflected equally in music, lyric, and performance.

Score: 76.92
File Under: alt.Country.Rock

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