Audio Remasterer: Greg Calbi.

David Byrne and Brian Eno's 1981 masterpiece, MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS, was a precocious slab of sampladelic art-funk that proved hugely influential. Twenty-seven years later, they finally got around to making another album together, but it's a far cry from BUSH OF GHOSTS' modernist World Music. Byrne and Eno called EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS WILL HAPPEN TODAY their "electronic gospel" album, and it's easy to see what they mean, though there's obviously more to the story.

While the tracks are less electronically derived than the pair's description might imply, the harmonies and melodies do indeed bear a trace of American gospel/soul influence. It's certainly one of the rootsiest-sounding records either man has made. There are still plenty of classic ambient Eno touches to the production, but these are largely conventional song structures, with straightforward melodic lines sung by Byrne and the occasional twist thrown in. A couple of tunes get a bit funkier/stranger, bearing echoes of Byrne's Talking Heads past, but for the most part, where BUSH OF GHOSTS darted in and out of the shadowy brush, this collaboration sits on the front porch rocker amiably reeling off engaging yarns.