BLEACHERS - Everyone For Ten Minutes

Two years on from the self-titled album, here comes the fifth chapter in the Bleachers saga, the band built around Jack Antonoff whenever he sheds the producer's hat to work as a musician in his own right. Both visually and musically, "Everyone For Ten Minutes" is closely tied to its predecessor; compared to that record, it's less varied and more contemplative, less energetic and more intimate. "Bleachers" was a look outward at the world, "Everyone For Ten Minutes" turns inward.

Antonoff, Freedom Hart and the rest of the band don't stray from familiar paths and the tried-and-tested formula; even with a somewhat sparer sound, the album features the usual layered production, with drums pushed well to the front and the customary "Springsteen-esque" sax we've come to expect.

The theme of Antonoff's recent marriage to Margaret Qualley looms large over the album, starting with the singles that preceded it: "You And Forever", built around a powerful crescendo of horns and percussion, and especially "Dirty Wedding Dress", the track closest in sound to the previous album. The other singles were "The Van", which recounts his first encounters with music, "We Should Talk" and "I'm Not Joking".

Antonoff's intent was to start from personal themes and shape them into something as universal as possible; to sing about love, sadness, grief and memory in a way that could feel close to everyone; an effort that runs parallel to the attempt to preserve, even on an album so heavily worked on in the studio, that intimacy with the audience you get at live shows, particularly in more intimate settings or in the moments of banter between songs.

Bleachers have become a real band, no longer just an Antonoff side project; that's thanks to the time spent together, the albums and the shows. They're a band that thrives on contamination and ambiguity: on one hand, big American rock (Springsteen above all), on the other, an indie sensibility; on one hand, forays into global pop, on the other, a more handmade, homespun dimension. Ultra-contemporary mainstream sounds alongside a will to experiment, all filtered through a recognisable language of their own. Not everything is always in focus, and it's not always easy to tell exactly where they're operating, somewhere between pop and auteur rock. Still, what remains are fine rock songs, extremely well-crafted, produced with a very precise sound. Take it or leave it.

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07/06/2026