A Fever Dream

A Fever Dream was envisioned as a "companion piece" to Get to Heaven (2015), Everything Everything's previous album. Writing for the album took place while the band toured. Bassist Jeremy Pritchard told Andrew Steel of the Yorkshire Evening Post: "We just wanted to work quicker, stew less, avoid neuroticism. [...] If we mixed the [touring and writing processes] up, we didn't get sick of one or the other."[9] By the end of their tour in September 2016, Everything Everything had built up a collection of demos that they worked to unpack between studios in Manchester and guitarist Alex Robertshaw's flat in London.[10] Robertshaw told music blog The 405's Ken Grand-Pierre on podcast "Exchange" that the writing process had been more collaborative than in the past. While Get to Heaven had tracks written mostly-independently by Robertshaw and vocalist Jonathan Higgs, for A Fever Dream the pair "worked from the ground up."[11]

While the band had worked with David Kosten and Stuart Price on previous albums, they instead hired James Ford to produce A Fever Dream. Pritchard explained that they had wanted to work with him since hearing his work on Arctic Monkeys' 2007 album Favourite Worst Nightmare, which they considered a "perfect sounding rock record." The majority of recording and production was completed in a month.[12]

Robertshaw has stated that the intention was to make the album feel "cohesive," that the music was "all in the same world." He and the rest of the band were inspired by Talk Talk's albums Laughing Stock and Spirit of Eden, which "came from a very experimental place" but which ultimately had a "real sense of place."[11]

The album was announced on 14 June 2017, with lead single "Can't Do" being featured on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show.[19]

A Fever Dream's title comes from the title track. Pritchard told HMV that they "thought it really encapsulated the hazy vibe of the album, the kind of distorted reality," and acknowledge that during production on previous albums they had spent too much time trying to select a name.[12] Its cover art consists of distorted nude photographs of dancers, taken by Paul Phung and manipulated by Joe Mortimer.

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.7/10[20]
Metacritic	81/100[21]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[22]
Exclaim!	9/10[23]
The Guardian	[24]
The Irish Times	[25]
Mojo	[26]
NME	[27]
The Observer	[28]
Pitchfork	7.1/10[29]
Q	[30]
Uncut	6/10[31]

A Fever Dream has received acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 81 out of 100, which indicates "universal acclaim" based on 18 reviews.[21]

AllMusic's Marcy Donelson described the album as "confrontational, warped, emotionally and aurally high-contrast, and full of turmoil, but reliable in its infectiousness."[22] Rachel Aroesti of The Guardian wrote that the album is not one to "kick back, relax and bury your head in the sand to – it is as much rock opera as traumatic event – but the band's deep dive into this undercurrent of fear and loathing feels necessary."[24]

In addition to the Mercury Prize nomination, Everything Everything received nominations at the Ivor Novello Awards in the categories of Best Album and Best Song Musically & Lyrically for "Can't Do".[32]

Adapted from the A Fever Dream liner notes.[33]

Production