One of the more amusing verbal lashings the Gallaghers dished out a few years back was to Kele Okereke. The Bloc Party frontman had recently described a new band that had taken his fancy as being “interesting”, to which Noel guffawed ”‘it’s either good or bad. It either makes sense to your brain or it doesn’t. There’s no such thing as interesting.”

Noel would doubtless hate Everything Everything. He probably already does. This bunch of fookin’ students are the archetypal ‘interesting’ band and as such are being talked up as one of a clutch of newcomers attempting to forge a new path for the guitar band. A future that, you know, involves something a little more imaginative than adding a synth player.

They do try. Not one of the tracks aired tonight (all from the recent album Man Alive) have what you would describe as a conventional structure. Instead of trusty ol’ verse-chorus-verse Everything Everything have ‘interesting’ bits that are bolted together in some sort of sequence. Sometimes this works. But often it doesn’t, most notably when frontman Jonathan Higgs goes through his paces. The frontman has an impressive range, which goes down, UP! and tries-to-fit-too-many-words-into-one-line. He’s trying. But most of the time he’s just aggravating and his vocal gymnastics detract from the music. Despite being one the few indie vocalists who can actually sing there’s precious little soul here, with the exception of the gorgeous, stirring Weights. Most of these songs have an impressive surface but very little feeling.

One shouldn’t be too harsh though. One plus point is that unlike virtually every other new group you can’t immediately spot their influences. There’s a bit of XTC, a sprinkle of Peter Gabriel. Apparently, the guitarist has a background in (whisper it) jazz. And you get the feeling they’re going to be around for the long haul. Maybe once they stop trying so damn hard to be totally original they might ally their rhythmic nous and considerable arrangement skills to a decent tune, something that engages the heart rather than just the mind. Being merely interesting is hardly ever enough.