Album Review: Bleachers – Everyone for Ten Minutes
3 min read
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I’ve seen the Bleachers three times – sufficed to say I’m a fan! Jack Antonoff is now one of the most influential figures in modern pop — whether producing (Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, The 1975, etc), or funnelling his own brand through various projects, including the Bleachers. Everyone for Ten Minutes, released via Dirty Hit, is their fifth studio album, and feels characteristically Antonoff — fleeting, reflective, slightly anxious, and probably self-deprecating in places too. Written during breaks in a relentless production schedule, the title hints at giving too little time to people (or some time to everyone) and holding onto moments before they disappear completely. So, time to find out if the timing was right, or if they should have given less time to people, and more time to working on these 11 tracks!!
Kicking off with Sideways, and you can immediately hear the similarities to the 1975’s About You, which Jack produced – and the setup is very similar, coupled with the Antonoff signature instrument crescendo, allowing the final bars of the track to tail off. We then are treated to The Van – kicking off with a sample of the intro to Blue Magic’s Just Don’t Want to Be Lonely, this track is a smash, from the reference-heavy lyrics, to the laid back mid-tempo imported from Blue Magic’s track, using the title as the hook lyrics, it’s very moreish, and how can you follow that up? We Should Talk tries, but feels a bit flat – clearly it’s a track about on hiatus friends and projects… most obviously Nate Russ (of Fun fame), but the electo element mixed with melancholy, almost pining lyrics is a bit ‘sad sac’ to me… and wasn’t what I was looking for after the previous track. I was also 1:45 into disliking You and Forever, it was slow beat synth with some auto tune (About finding his new wife) in which I wasn’t loving, but then it picked up into a half decent track, with the classic Antonoff outro.
Dirty Wedding Dress was a bit too Bruce Springsteen EZ Street for me (I know he loves Springsteen… I do too, but when he does tracks that feel like homages to him… it’s not for me), and the EZ feel continues into Take You Out Tonight through it’s a far superior, less of a Springsteen homage feel to it – the gospel church style organs, tempo and vocal tones separating it from the previous track. I Can’t Believe You’re Gone is a more melancholy, stripped back track, with an almost sea shanty quality to the tempo … which is… fine… I guess, and leads to Dancing, which is up there with the better tracks of the album – entirely acoustic and very much Bleachers. She’s from Before follows – which has a distinct folk country vibe to it (didn’t work for me TBH), while penultimate track I’m Not Joking uses a fantastic blend of instruments, from the harpsichord to the Hammond organ, in what is by far my favourite track on the album, it has a good tempo and energy to it, and feels like Antonoff is at his level best. We close offerings with another great track, Upstairs at Els has a distinct 80’s electro pop feel to it, with a decent mid but upbeat tempo.
Everyone for Ten Minutes is a solid album, some whiffs and some absolute hits. Do I think that any of these tracks will be on the Bleachers ‘Mount Rushmore’… probably not, but I would say that I’m Not Joking or Upstairs at Els aren’t a million miles off – they’d certainly get an honourable mention. I’ll still go to the next Bleachers gig that comes around, but I’ll be hoping they cherry pick Everyone for Ten Minutes rather than lean heavily on it – put it like that.
