Everyone Says Hi – Everyone Says Hi

When one hears the term supergroup one thinks of the titans of 60s rock – Cream, Blind Faith, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

Well now, in the shape of Everyone Says Hi, 2000s indie bloke rock has its own version.

They are fronted by Kaiser Chiefs drummer Nick Hodgson, with The Kooks’s Pete Denton on bass – flanked by the more eclectic duo of Glenn Moule of The Howling Bells on drums, and The Dead 60s’s Ben Gordon on keys.

Those who derided the Kaiser Chiefs and The Kooks as “landfill indie” – a glut of groups of guys with guitars so pervasive they required waste management – will be pleased to know Everyone Says Hi offer something very different.

More indie pop than rock, their self-titled debut record is bright and breezy, with touches of R.E.M., Flaming Lips or Super Furry Animals. Though it never quite hits the heights of that exalted company.

Everyone Says Hi’s debut does take a while to click into gear, as opener Somebody Somewhere is something of a plod, while Lucky Stars feels like one of the more forgettable early Coldplay tracks.

Only One meanwhile sounds like it might have been written for one of the pop stars Hodgson has made a second musical career out of writing for. It’s perfectly pleasant – just a bit by numbers and in need of more pyrotechnics to sell its well-worn hook and clichéd loved-up lyrics.

Things do pick up significantly though in the album’s middle section, with Brain Freeze, and then lead single On the Same Side – a melodic delight with a winningly simple chorus.

It’s the following track I Wasn’t Dreaming that truly delivers on the project’s promise, combining a toned-down hint of the group’s indie rock origins with a floaty chorus that manages to convey deep emotion, and keyboards with a hint of Tame Impala-esque psychedelia.

Hold On to Let Go is a more meat-and-potatoes effort but is catchy in a way that you imagine might’ve made it an infuriatingly ubiquitous hit sometime in the late 1990s. Finally, Did I Just Fall In Love’s pleasing lovelorn melancholia makes for a fitting closer.

Everyone Says Hi is something of a mixed bag – as its early tracks don’t quite achieve lift-off. But as it goes on it does have its moments and overall is an enjoyably meditative listen.

Though imperfect, this is a record that certainly doesn’t belong in a landfill.

Mark Worgan
Image: Stewart Baxter

Everyone Says Hi is released on 31^st January 2025. For further information or to order the album visit Everyone Says Hi’s website here.

Watch the video for the single On the Same Side here: