Every Man For Himself & God Against All

Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores / Every Man for Himself and God Against All

Accordion-led well-instrumented screwed-up mellow indie pop. Really screwed up, I mean. This album is mostly not “pretty” (although some tracks of it are), but rather explorative, demanding in a way that Animal Collective or Frog Eyes albums will haunt you. The soundscape is interesting, chamber-like with cello, sax, trumpets, accordion of course, etc (about 10 people in the band, most playing chamber instruments). The lyrics are appropriately vague and oblique, some elusive religious references surface (check out the album title).
Tracks 1-9 are interesting, start with 1, 2 (FCC), 5. FCC: 2, 4.
1. * Quiet strings plucked, calm voice, strings, quiet shakers, female choir chorus. Ends with muted trumpets. Great! *
2. * FCC (“Bullshit”) Accordion, mid tempo funky rhythm, nice tune. *
3. Instrumental. Lone accordion opens, then hand claps, keyboards echo, loud percussion – builds quickly and then drops all but accordion, and rises again.
4. FCC (“Fuckin”) Slow tempo. Quiet strings, brass, drony percussion. Louder, duet in chorus. Beautiful.
5. * Mideastern-inspired fiddling/accordion, handclaps, nice rhythm. Brief vocals appear. Truly strange lyrics. Cool stuff. *
6. Duet, prominent female vox, slow, drony, sad feel, dark.
7. Louder, mid tempo, accordion leads, full sound, ends with loud drumming and vocal frenzy.
8. Slow tempo, cheerful feel but dark lyrics.
9. Nice mellow mid/slow tune, halts when vox come in with quiet backdrop.
10. Long [7:06] instrumental, improvised collage of noises. Starts with a drone that carries from the previous track. Screeches and noises added. Sounds like a demented, haunted chapel in the middle.
11. Same as 10, really short.