David Byrne and Brian Eno’s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is not much like anything they’ve done before. The disc, which is being released online in advance of the physical discs that are due in November, sounds a little bit like Talking Heads’ more placid material from Little Creatures, maybe, but the glossy acoustic guitars and placid harmonies sound almost nothing like Byrne and Eno’s ominous and globe-trotting 1981 collage My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Aside from a few wrong-footed stumbles in the direction of funk (the frankly embarrassing “I Feel My Stuff” and the already-dated “Poor Boy” both seem like the by-products of hanging around Moby too long), there’s a fair amount of mature pop-rock gold in them thar hills.

If Everything sounds like anybody, it’s Eno protégés Coldplay; sonically adventurous at times, but ultimately rooted in Eno’s ringing harmonies and Byrne’s simple, easily understood sentiments rendered with potentially broad appeal, as on the shimmeringly optimistic “One Fine Day.” And compared to Chris Martin’s mawkish sentiments, Everything is far easier to endure; take “The River,” which swells with digestible symbolism and irony-free displays of emotion. When Byrne and Eno lead you to water, you can drink as much as you like without getting sick to your stomach. (www.everythingthathappens.com)

MP3 OF THE WEEK
Nacho Lovers, “Acid House Mix”: Starting off with Phuture’s “Acid Tracks” suggests this acieeed set from local duo Scott Seewhale and Fistfight (the latter of whom plays The Drake this Friday — see Clubs, page 45) will be just another greatest hits to go with Nacho Lovers’  primer in September’s issue of The Fader, but they quickly veer off into idiosyncratic picks like Darkman’s atypical “Annihilating Rhythm” and Monty Luke & Tasho’s more recent “Paranoid,” which has eerie vocal chopping and screwing that would have been impossible, or at least very tricky, in ‘87. (http://tinyurl.com/nacholovers)

Email us at: LETTERS@EYEWEEKLY.COM or send your questions to EYEWEEKLY.COM
625 Church St, 6th Floor, Toronto M4Y 2G1