The Rest: Everyone All At Once

First off, let me get this out of the way: Ontario, Canada’s The Rest and their latest full-length, Everyone All At Once, are not the second coming to The Arcade Fire’s Funeral and frankly, it’s a bit of disservice to call it that based on what The Rest have accomplished with this album. While both bands share a certain desperation found in their music as well as a penchant for being Canadians in a multi-member (i.e., more than four people) group, the similarities kind of end there. You will not find any immediate choruses backed by frantic hooks that urge you to sing and dance in any situation of your choosing, no, but rather a wide array of subtle influences that require absolute attention upon listening.

Financed from making their own beer which in turn was sold at their own self-promoted shows, Everyone All At Once was written and recorded over a period of two-years in various locales of isolation which probably explains the atmosphere the album permeates. While it garnered a North American release last spring on Auteur Recordings, I’m glad I’m hearing this for the first time as we prepare to move into autumn’s twilight.

Like leaves on a tree during this time of the year, Everyone All At Once is a colorful palette of sounds that nod slightly to 60s folk as well as the grandiose pop of Ocean Rain-era Echo & the Bunneymen and the tranquil soundscapes of Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden. You also get hints from the multitude of singles produced by Sarah Records’ artists (i.e., The Harvest Ministers “You Do My World the World of Good”) and dreampop acts that followed while simultaneously treading a path used by more current contemporaries such as Grizzly Bear and Sigur Ros. The gorgeous harmonies flow and crash like waves against a rocky shore situated between sincere bouts of contemplation and sighs over lost loves and missed opportunities.

No doubt these ramblings come off as pretentious but that is usually what comes when describing a great album that sounds immediately familiar yet painfully difficult to articulate with just comparisons. Everyone All At Once will not be for the masses, but rather a small group of devoted fans looking for something that hinges a bit more on introspection. This is a special record that’ll probably reveal something new with each and every listen for years after you first hear it.

The Rest – “Walk On Water (Auspicious Beginnings)” (mp3)

(from the Auteur Recordings download, Everyone All At Once, 2009)

The band are gearing up for a trip to the UK where they've just been signed to Someting In Construction Records who have kindly provided us with a copy of the W.O.W. EP (which can be had HERE) in anticipation of Everyone All At Once's UK release on October 12th.