Fans of Birmingham, England-based noise pop superlatives Johnny Foreigner who pre-ordered the long-awaited, forthcoming "Every Cloakroom Ever" single found a surprise in their email inboxes Tuesday in the form of links to download digital versions of what is now the Every Cloakroom Ever 10" EP. The collection was originally slated to be a single but got blown out to four tracks after enough fans jumped on board with pre-orders to make the cost structure work. Another cool thing is that the digital version of the EP was delivered as 320kbps MP3s and .WAV files. You might wonder why they bothered with the WAV files -- until you listen to the bass in the WAV file of the title track, which bass sounds as if it will explode through your speakers. So awesome. The physical manifestation of Every Cloakroom Ever has a fuzzy release date, but it is generally expected to ship next month. As the band has spent a fair amount of time in a different hemisphere in recent weeks, and there was touring to take care of prior to that, and given Johnny Foreigner is handling the vinyl release itself through special arrangement with its label Best Before, the extra time to get the product out is reasonable. Especially considering the cover art will include the name of every single person who pre-ordered the physical media, as (we imagine painstakingly) rendered by the inimitable Lewes Herriot.
In addition to the title track, the aforementioned EP contains three b-sides: "For The Chains," "Things I Would Have Swapped For Heart-Shaped Glasses, 2001-2006" and the actually quite wonderful remix of the title track "Ever Every Cloakroom." The remix is notable because fronter and guitarist Alexei Berrow takes the vocals handled by bassist Kelly Southern in the original version and vice versa. Between that and the brilliant production, we humbly suggest that this remix may actually be better than the source itself: maybe. "For The Chains" (lyrics posted here) is driven by Berrow's spiraling spoken lyrics, much like the verse of the "Criminals" b-side "Palace Fires." However, "For The Chains" is somehow more melancholy despite having a bigger electronic beat. The big, airy reverb on the clean lead guitar, some phasing drone and surprise-filled, layered production (that knocking sound tucked into the eaves of the last 30 seconds actually drives us a little batty thinking someone is at the door) makes the amazing track perhaps the most We Left You Sleeping And Gone-ish of anything the band has done in the last five years. "Things I Would Have Swapped For Heart-Shaped Glasses, 2001-2006" (lyrics posted here) opens with a somewhat discordant and Pavement-y riff (delivered at twice Pavement speed) that is sure to make the track a quick fan favorite.
So we know that pre-orders were taken and fared very well. One thing we don't know is if folks who did not pre-order will be able to get their hands on the 10" vinyl. We'll try to get the answers for you.
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