Water From Your Eyes
Everyone’s Crushed
This album had everything going against it: the weird name, the weird cover, the weird sound, and the weird categorization. The first two I’ll chalk up to myself and being a philistine. Yes, I think the name is weird but what’s in a name? As long as it’s not the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, it should be fine. The band is Water From Your Eyes with their album Everyone’s Crushed. Sure, let’s do that. The cover is some reference to a cop/heist movie from the 70s, which is also just…fine. The categorization I will lay solely at the feet of lazy or jaded reviewers who want to come up with a new way to categorize music. I think at some point I read it being described as punk rock in an Adult Swim kind of way. Crazy, right? What does that even mean? I think there are elements of this album that sound like they would belong in a Tim and Eric sketch, but there’s more to it than that.
I’ll propose a more grounded perspective that Everyone’s Crushed has many elements that make a good record. It sounds just slightly off with its discordant melodies (is this an oxymoron?) which is a good thing (Jon Spencer taught us as much), but it doesn’t punish the listener (like some Bjork inevitably does). It also zig-zags, throwing curve balls, veering off the expected path. It does this repeatedly whether it’s melody, beat, or even the complete sound of a song. Like I said, Everyone’s Crushed keeps it interesting. I appreciate that, but underneath it all, I have to admit that maybe this album isn’t for me, ironically a punk rocker who loves Adult Swim. So, there you have it, the reviewers are wrong because I stood my ground. What I can admit is that, even now, I still think about this album and will probably revisit it at a future date. I realize there are new things here I will enjoy with fresh ears.
You’d think a band like this would do something wackier with their record, but I’m kind of glad they didn’t. Everyone’s Crushed comes housed in a beautiful gatefold and comes on black vinyl or a red variant (still available and modestly priced from our friends at Matador!). This is definitely a cool album and an interesting release of 2023. It might not be for everyone, and I might be in that category, but I’ll admit I was still caught pleasantly surprised in many instances.
