On “Everybody’s Got It Easy But Me’ The Intelligence do indeed top themselves. Like their last album, “Males” from 2010, they have returned to The Hangar with Chris Woodhouse to record. As with “Males” they seem to continue to jettison their previous deliberate blown-out, lo-fi recording approach for a much clearer sound. Not that there’s any give-up in intensity. The band’s scrambling post-punk guitars, its straight-up, dry-as-a-bone drums, its laconically abstract verses are all here, just viewed through an unusually clear lens. If you didn’t have the songs or the chops this sort of thing could reveal some weaknesses but, in this instance, it showcases Lars Finberg’s knack for writing catchy songs, which incorporate pop hooks, metronomically repetitive guitar riffs and new wavey synth moves.
