{"history":[],"article":{"id":"ae515ab4-c824-4a75-90b7-291e913f6caf","title":"Everything That Happens Will Happen Today","slug":"everything-that-happens-will-happen-today","content":":::summary\n![Cover to the Compact Disc, digital, and vinyl versions of the album](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/David///Byrne///and///Brian///Eno///--///Everything///That///Happens///Will///Happen///Today///Album///Cover.jpg)\n**Name:** Everything That Happens Will Happen Today \n**Type:** studio \n**Artist:** [David Byrne](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-byrne) and [Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/brian-eno) \n**Released:** August 18, 2008 \n**Recorded:** [Demoed](https://bliptext.com/articles/demo-music) by Eno in his [London](https://bliptext.com/articles/london) home studio through 2006, finished by Byrne and [Leo Abrahams](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-abrahams) in their [New York City](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-city) and [London](https://bliptext.com/articles/london) home studios through 2008; additional instrumentation recorded at Cafe Music Studios and at Harder Sound in [New York City](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-city). \n**Genre:** [Electronic](https://bliptext.com/articles/electronic-music) · [folktronica](https://bliptext.com/articles/folktronica) · [gospel](https://bliptext.com/articles/gospel-music) \n**Length:** 47:16 \n**Label:** [Todo Mundo](https://bliptext.com/articles/todo-mundo) \n**Producer:** [David Byrne](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-byrne) and [Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/brian-eno), additional production by [Leo Abrahams](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-abrahams) \n**Prev Title:** [My Life in the Bush of Ghosts](https://bliptext.com/articles/my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts-album) \n**Prev Year:** 1981 \n:::\n\n# \n**Everything That Happens Will Happen Today** is the second collaborative studio album by [David Byrne](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-byrne) and [Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/brian-eno), released on August 18, 2008, by [Todo Mundo](https://bliptext.com/articles/todo-mundo).\nMarking Byrne's eighth studio effort overall and Byrne and Eno's first joint project in nearly 30years, the album explores themes of humanity versus technology and optimism in spite of bleak circumstance through the blending of [electronic](https://bliptext.com/articles/electronic-music) and [gospel music](https://bliptext.com/articles/gospel-music).\nCritical reception was largely positive and the album received awards for both the musical content as well as the packaging and technical production.\nThis album is the first joint effort between the two musicians since 1981's [My Life in the Bush of Ghosts](https://bliptext.com/articles/my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts-album) and Eno's work [producing](https://bliptext.com/articles/record-producer) and co-writing with [Talking Heads](https://bliptext.com/articles/talking-heads).\nByrne and Eno worked on the tracks in their home studios throughout 2007 and early 2008 and sent digital copies of the recordings to one another over e-mail.\nThe single \"[Strange Overtones](https://bliptext.com/articles/strange-overtones)\" was released for free to promote the album and Byrne [toured through 2008 and 2009](https://bliptext.com/articles/songs-of-david-byrne-and-brian-eno-tour), performing songs from this release as well as the duo's previous collaborations.\nThis tour was later documented with the live [extended play](https://bliptext.com/articles/extended-play) [Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour – David Byrne on Tour: Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/everything-that-happens-will-happen-on-this-tour-david-byrne-on-tour-songs-of-david-byrne-and-brian-eno) and the [concert film](https://bliptext.com/articles/concert-film) [Ride, Rise, Roar](https://bliptext.com/articles/ride-rise-roar).\nEverything That Happens Will Happen Today was released with a marketing strategy that involved Byrne creating the [vanity label](https://bliptext.com/articles/vanity-label) Todo Mundo and hiring Internet startup company [Topspin Media](https://bliptext.com/articles/topspin-media) to promote the album online using word-of-mouth and Internet sales to market the music.\nSeveral formats were created to allow users to have options on how to listen to the music—from free streaming audio to a deluxe package housed in a tin.\n\n# Background\nIn December 2007, David Byrne announced on the [BBC Radio](https://bliptext.com/articles/bbc-radio) music show The Weekender that he was working with former collaborator Brian Eno on a brand new album of \"proper songs,\" describing it as a \"completely different thing\" from the [experimental](https://bliptext.com/articles/experimental-music) [My Life in the Bush of Ghosts](https://bliptext.com/articles/my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts-album).\nWhile the two were discussing the 2006 re-release of that album at a dinner party, Eno suggested adding lyrics and vocals to some of his unfinished songs, some of which were eight years old.\nThe duo did not initially plan on making an entire album, but eventually felt confident enough to finish a full collection of songs.\nAlthough the two had discussed making an album together for several years, this was their first sincere effort since the early 1980s.\nByrne visited Eno's London studio to listen to the [demos](https://bliptext.com/articles/demo-music) and the two decided to collaborate to finish writing the songs, leaving Eno and [Peter Chilvers](https://bliptext.com/articles/peter-chilvers-musician) to convert a variety of [digital music](https://bliptext.com/articles/digital-audio) formats into MIDI, thereby stripping out extraneous information and making them suitable for Byrne to embellish.\n(Chilvers would be thanked in the [liner notes](https://bliptext.com/articles/liner-notes) for \"Digital Archaeology\".) The two continued to work on this and other musical projects for several months and agreed that if the project was not enjoyable, they would abandon it.\nThe duo decided to not announce their new collaboration for fear that they may not complete an album's worth of new material, or that they would end up re-treading their previous collaborations and decide against releasing the new songs.\n\n## Composition\nEno had several musical compositions, but could not write lyrics to accompany them, whereas Byrne had several lyrics with no accompaniment.\nEno wanted to make the vocals the \"central event\" of the music by pairing gospel singing with unexpected electronic music that also included elements of [West African music](https://bliptext.com/articles/music-of-west-africa).\nThe songwriting's emphasis on vocals was partially inspired by [Phillip Bimstein](https://bliptext.com/articles/phillip-bimstein).\nIn late 2007, Byrne took a [compact disc](https://bliptext.com/articles/compact-disc) of [stereo](https://bliptext.com/articles/stereophonic-sound) mixes of the demos from Eno and spent a year trying to write lyrics to finish the songs, attempting to balance the simple [chords](https://bliptext.com/articles/chord-music) that Eno had written with the more complex ones Byrne prefers.\nAlthough it was uncharacteristic for Eno, many of the songs were written on [acoustic guitar](https://bliptext.com/articles/acoustic-guitar), with the help of [Steinberg Cubase](https://bliptext.com/articles/steinberg-cubase).\nThe musicians exchanged Eno's demos with the lyrics and vocal melodies completed by Byrne over e-mail and by June 2008, 14 songs had been recorded.\nEno initially gave positive feedback, which encouraged Byrne to continue writing and only became critical as the project was finishing.\nToward the end of the recording, Eno sent increasingly challenging tracks to see if Byrne could complete them—the final two ended up on the album as \"I Feel My Stuff\" and \"Poor Boy\".\nAt the outset, Byrne was hesitant to add lyrics to the tracks because they sounded too much like [folk music](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-music).\nHe characterized the process as very slow and full of trepidation, in part because of expectations from their previous collaboration and also due to the strict division of labor they had between writing instrumentation and vocalization.\nEno only provided a few vocal demos and suggested simple changes like adding an extra verse.\nByrne made minimal changes to the instrumentation on several tracks and avoided changing chords in the melody to suit his singing style.\nThe duo only worked in the studio together on two occasions, including one full week and a weekend on another occasion and neither partner got a veto in the process of track selection or [production](https://bliptext.com/articles/record-producer).\nAccording to Byrne, the main challenge in this writing technique \"was more emotional than technical: to write simple heartfelt tunes without drawing on cliché.\"\nHe later explained, \"In a nutshell, Brian wrote most of the music, and I composed most of the vocal melodies and lyrics, and then sang them.\"\nIf Byrne's vocal harmonies were radical enough, Eno would revise the instrumentation to accompany it, but Byrne avoided writing instrumentation and chose to adapt to the instrumentals as written.\nUsing a style similar to the Talking Heads album [Speaking in Tongues](https://bliptext.com/articles/speaking-in-tongues-talking-heads-album), Byrne [scatted](https://bliptext.com/articles/scat-singing) and murmured some lyrics before they were completed, due to Byrne's preference for the sonic quality of lyrics rather than their literal meaning and his method of writing lyrics using free association.\nIn composing lyrics for the album, Byrne attempted to write keeping in mind what would please Eno as his collaborator.\nHe also attempted to write harmonies for Eno, who decided against singing any lead vocals on the album.\nEno does perform backing vocals throughout the album, which he credits on one track as \"inhuman piano\"\nBoth musicians continued to work on their own projects during the composition of Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.\nByrne [wrote the score for the second season](https://bliptext.com/articles/big-love-hymnal) of [Big Love](https://bliptext.com/articles/big-love) and completed his collaborations with [Fatboy Slim](https://bliptext.com/articles/fatboy-slim) on the album and [musical](https://bliptext.com/articles/rock-musical) [Here Lies Love](https://bliptext.com/articles/here-lies-love) and the [single](https://bliptext.com/articles/single-music) \"[Toe Jam](https://bliptext.com/articles/toe-jam-the-brighton-port-authority-song)\".\nEno produced [Coldplay](https://bliptext.com/articles/coldplay)'s [Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends](https://bliptext.com/articles/viva-la-vida-or-death-and-all-his-friends) and [U2](https://bliptext.com/articles/u2)'s [No Line on the Horizon](https://bliptext.com/articles/no-line-on-the-horizon).\nByrne and Eno discussed the former's collaboration with Fatboy Slim and [Chris Martin](https://bliptext.com/articles/chris-martin) of Coldplay wrote lyrics to the instrumental track for \"One Fine Day\", but acquiesced when he heard Byrne's version (the band would also adapt another one of Eno's instrumental compositions that Byrne did not finish into a track on Viva la Vida).\nOnce Byrne's version of \"One Fine Day\" was finished, the two began in earnest writing the rest of the tracks.\nByrne initially had a long delay in writing material, but as the project progressed, he began working several hours a day on the album and put his collaboration with Fatboy Slim on hold to finish the songs in the early part of 2008.\nSince the two did not work together face-to-face as they had in the past, it was harder for them to complete material quickly, and they had to rush to finish two of the tracks at the end of the sessions.\nHe later described the process as easy once details were sorted out and summed up this method as \"pure joy\" and declared writing collaboratively to be easier than writing solo.\nHe even credited the time between their last collaboration and the transatlantic distance as a strength, since it allowed the two to keep their own schedules.\nEno agreed, as it gave him time to focus on a small piece of music without holding up Byrne's progress.\nByrne later used a similar approach through 2010 and 2011 in collaborations with [St. Vincent](https://bliptext.com/articles/st-vincent-musician) ([Love This Giant](https://bliptext.com/articles/love-this-giant)) and [Will Oldham](https://bliptext.com/articles/will-oldham) (the soundtrack to [This Must Be the Place](https://bliptext.com/articles/this-must-be-the-place-film)).\n\n## Themes\nThe two were inspired by [gospel music](https://bliptext.com/articles/gospel-music) and both have described their music as \"electronic gospel\"—in particular the tracks \"Life Is Long\" and \"One Fine Day\".\nIn addition to subtle [Biblical](https://bliptext.com/articles/bible) themes in the lyrics, Eno was influenced by gospel musicality, which he initially discovered through Talking Heads while working on [More Songs About Buildings and Food](https://bliptext.com/articles/more-songs-about-buildings-and-food) by listening to \"Surrender to His Will\" by Reverend Maceo Woods and The Christian Tabernacle Choir.\nFor several years leading up to this project, Eno had primarily listened to gospel music—even joining a gospel [choir](https://bliptext.com/articles/choir) —and was attracted to the music's unrestrained vocals and lack of pessimism as well as its inclusive nature.\nEno had been thinking about gospel for several years, but could not write lyrics to hopeful songs.\nWhile Byrne considers the music \"[un]like any contemporary gospel record that you would hear out there,\" it is \"informed by that feeling and those kind of lyrics, which allude to hope in the face of despair.\"\nEno also considers the album \"something that combines something very human and fallible and personal, with something very electronic and mathematical sometimes.\"\nThe music combines electronic and gospel influences to \"make that picture of the human still trying to survive in an increasingly complicated digital world... It's quite easy to make just digital music and it's quite easy to make just human music, but to try and make a combination is sort of, exciting, I think.\"\nTracks such as \"My Big Nurse\" combine [apocalypticism](https://bliptext.com/articles/apocalypticism) and comfort, blending hopefulness and despair.\nThe instrumental demos were primarily written in [major chords](https://bliptext.com/articles/major-chord), which Byrne considered slightly \"ominous\" and surprising from Eno.\nIn spite of this, Byrne's lyrics ended up being hopeful and spiritual, with themes of redemption —what he considers \"optimism in spite of the dread.\"\nThe tension between optimism and pessimism and the spiritual themes quickly emerged over the course of a year in which Byrne was writing lyrics, which he has speculated might be an antidote to being \"completely pessimistic and cynical about politics and the state of the world;\" for instance, \"The River\" is about the [effects](https://bliptext.com/articles/hurricane-katrina-effects-by-region) of [Hurricane Katrina](https://bliptext.com/articles/hurricane-katrina).\nHe has also cited the political climate of the [Iraq War](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq-war), the beginning of the [late-2000s recession](https://bliptext.com/articles/late-2000s-recession), the policies of the [George W. Bush administration](https://bliptext.com/articles/presidency-of-george-w-bush), and his 2004 divorce from [Adelle Lutz](https://bliptext.com/articles/adelle-lutz) as factors that inspired him to create uplifting music.\nAs he explained, \"I was surprised that's what came out... The tracks are very different from what I would have done myself. I lean toward things that are more complicated.\"\nEno also thinks the album is much better than the songs he imagined when composing them solo.\nEno has also said the album is about \"paint[ing] a picture of the human trying to survive in an increasingly digital world\" and Byrne considered his job as lyricist to \"bring more humanity\" to Eno's instrumentals, which can be \"cold and academic.\"\nThemes of humanity struggling with technology are apparent on several tracks and Byrne has characterized the \"overall vibe\" of the album as \"We're going to get through this. Humanity will prevail.\"\nThe lyrical content includes \"a sinister inflection\" but \"many songs feel fairly uplifting and the overall tone is hopeful.\"\nByrne focused on mundane events and attempted to write in a style that was \"simple but not corny, basic but heartfelt.\"\nHis inspiration in writing lyrics for \"One Fine Day\" was the story of [Valentino Achak Deng](https://bliptext.com/articles/valentino-achak-deng) as told in [Dave Eggers](https://bliptext.com/articles/dave-eggers)' [What Is the What](https://bliptext.com/articles/what-is-the-what-the-autobiography-of-valentino-achak-deng) —the two are thanked in the liner notes and Byrne had previously performed at a fundraiser for Eggers' [826 Valencia](https://bliptext.com/articles/826-valencia).\nThe story of the [Lost Boys of Sudan](https://bliptext.com/articles/lost-boys-of-sudan) is emblematic of the spiritual themes of the album as they go through \"all kinds of unrelenting horrors, but [are] eternally hopeful and even cheerful, in a way that defies all logic.\"\nThe music on this album also expresses [homesickness](https://bliptext.com/articles/homesickness)—a lyrical trend that is apparent in Byrne's work with Talking Heads.\n# [The story of Valentino Achak Deng (left)—as told by Dave Eggers (right) in the 2006 novel What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng—inspired Byrne to write hopeful lyrics. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Valentino///Deng///%26///Dave///Eggers///in///San///Mateo///10-1-08///1.JPG]\n\n## Production\nBy March 2008, the duo had recruited [Seb Rochford](https://bliptext.com/articles/seb-rochford) to play [drums](https://bliptext.com/articles/drum-kit) with Byrne in [New York City](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-city).\nLater that month, multi-instrumentalist and previous Eno collaborator [Leo Abrahams](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-abrahams) was enlisted to perform [guitar](https://bliptext.com/articles/guitar), [percussion instruments](https://bliptext.com/articles/percussion-instrument), and [piano](https://bliptext.com/articles/piano) in his London home studio.\nAbrahams and Rochford would continue working on the tracks in Abrahams' studio through May and their work was e-mailed to other collaborators—Byrne attended one session to play guitar.\nOther musicians worked with Byrne in New York City and Eno in London, such as frequent Byrne collaborator [Mauro Refosco](https://bliptext.com/articles/mauro-refosco), Eno's daughters Darla and Irial, and [Jarvis Cocker](https://bliptext.com/articles/jarvis-cocker) of [Pulp](https://bliptext.com/articles/pulp-band), who added uncredited guitar in London.\nThe duo attempted to record as much of the music from home studios as possible and played almost all instrumentation themselves, saving the [drums](https://bliptext.com/articles/drum-kit) and percussion for the studio.\nIn addition to the tracks that were released, the musicians had some other instrumentals that Byrne did not complete.\nSpeaking at an April 2008 event in New York, Byrne confirmed the release of a new album, calling it a \"record of sung songs\" in contrast to the experimental music from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and later told the [New York Daily News](https://bliptext.com/articles/daily-news-new-york) that \"Brian had written a lot of music, but needed some words, which I know how to do. What's it sound like? Electronic gospel. That's all I'm saying.\"\nEno also explained the differences between this album and their previous one saying, \"[T]his is quite different from My Life in that the intention of that album was to not use our voices at all, but instead to find voices and stick them on to the music. This new one is different—these are songs written and sung by David... They go from electronic [folk](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-music) gospel to quite indefinable areas of music.\"\nThroughout the middle of the year, Abrahams recorded drums at his home studio and Cherif Hashizume recorded more at Cafe Music Studios, while Robert Harder at Harder Sound recorded the drums on \"My Big Nurse\", \"Never Thought\", \"The Painting\", and \"Life Is Long\".\nAbrahams collected all of the recordings to have them mixed and Byrne booked tour dates in anticipation of completing the album.\nMixing continued through June 2008 in New York by previous Byrne collaborator Patrick Dillett at Kampo Studios, who recorded [brass](https://bliptext.com/articles/brass-instrument) and percussion.\nThey e-mailed the mixes to Eno for final approval and sent the finalized audio to [Greg Calbi](https://bliptext.com/articles/greg-calbi) at Sterling Sound for [mastering](https://bliptext.com/articles/audio-mastering).\nOn July 28, 2008, details of the album became public knowledge when Byrne posted on his [blog](https://bliptext.com/articles/blog) that he and Eno had finished the new album and it would be released on August 18.\nThe album website was launched on the same day, with a promotional video of Byrne introducing the new album.\n# [Jarvis Cocker—pictured here performing in 2008—was brought in to play uncredited guitar on Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Jarvis///Cocker///Webster///Hall.jpg]\n\n## Design\nThe physical releases of the album came with graphics and packaging designed by [Stefan Sagmeister](https://bliptext.com/articles/stefan-sagmeister) with Richard The, Joe Shouldice, and Jared Stone; illustration by Stephan Walter; and production by [Gamil Design](https://bliptext.com/articles/gamil-design).\nSagmeister had earlier received a [Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award-for-best-boxed-or-special-limited-edition-package) [Grammy](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award) in 2005 for [art direction](https://bliptext.com/articles/art-director) on the Talking Heads' [Once in a Lifetime](https://bliptext.com/articles/once-in-a-lifetime-talking-heads-album) box set and also designed the cover to Byrne's [Feelings](https://bliptext.com/articles/feelings-david-byrne-album).\nThis album would also win a Grammy in 2010 for Best Record Packaging and was additionally recognized by [Creative Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/creative-review).\nHis inspiration for the packaging was based on the song \"Home\" and the artwork reflects an urban scene of a house by a roadside; the [liner notes](https://bliptext.com/articles/liner-notes) provide closeups on the home and the artwork on the Compact Disc is the grass from the lawn.\nSagmeister proceeded to create not only an image for the cover, but an entire three-dimensional model for the house, which was later released as the deluxe edition packaging.\nUpon repeated listenings to the album, he became convinced that there was a sinister element to the setting and provided clues to the \"dark edge\" of the scene, such as a discarded [condom](https://bliptext.com/articles/condom) wrapper in the gutter, a man looking out the window with binoculars, and a gasoline canteen in the kitchen.\nThe deluxe package comes in a tin with a microchip that plays a sound of someone walking down a hallway in the house and slamming a door when the package is opened.\nThe urban themes of the packaging are expanded in this edition, with the album entitled \"Stick\" and the bonus content \"Rock\"; discs are designed to look like they are covered in grass.\nThis design of a [pixelated](https://bliptext.com/articles/pixelation), [dimetric projection](https://bliptext.com/articles/axonometric-projection) domestic scene has been compared to [The Sims](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-sims).\n# [Designer Stefan Sagmeister was inspired by the music to create a domestic scene with a \"dark edge\", such as this roof with a discarded condom wrapper in the gutter. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Everything///That///Happens///Will///Happen///Today///closeup.png]\n\n# Release\nThe album was self-released on August 18, 2008, exclusively through the album's website.\nIt was made available there free for [streaming](https://bliptext.com/articles/streaming-media) and for purchase as a download of [DRM ](https://bliptext.com/articles/digital-rights-management)-free [MP3 s](https://bliptext.com/articles/mp3).\nThe duo released the album from other online [digital music](https://bliptext.com/articles/digital-music) services starting the following month, including [7digital](https://bliptext.com/articles/7digital), [Amazon MP3](https://bliptext.com/articles/amazon-mp3), [eMusic](https://bliptext.com/articles/emusic), the [iTunes Store](https://bliptext.com/articles/itunes-store), [Napster](https://bliptext.com/articles/napster-pay-service), and the [Zune Marketplace](https://bliptext.com/articles/zune-marketplace).\nNo record label was involved in releasing the digital format and independent distributors were allowed to handle the physical product, which was released on November 25 as an [enhanced CD ](https://bliptext.com/articles/enhanced-cd)and a deluxe-packaged CD in a tin.\n\n## Formats and release history\nInitially, three distinct versions of the album were released:\nIn addition, customers are entitled to [lossless](https://bliptext.com/articles/lossless-data-compression) [FLAC ](https://bliptext.com/articles/free-lossless-audio-codec)versions of the album at no extra cost.\nBy mid-December 2008, 12 percent of customers chose to download the FLAC option.\nThis album is catalogued as the second release from Byrne's vanity label Todo Mundo after [Big Love: Hymnal](https://bliptext.com/articles/big-love-hymnal); copies of the CD were marked CD-TODO-002.\nThe CD was released in Japan with a bonus track—\"Poor Boy\" (Eno & Leo Abrahams Remix)—and [obi strip](https://bliptext.com/articles/obi-strip) in November 2008 through [Beat Records](https://bliptext.com/articles/beat-records-japan) with catalogue number BRC-218.\nOn February 17, 2009, the album was released on 180-gram [vinyl LP](https://bliptext.com/articles/lp-album) as LP-TODO-002.\n\n## Singles\nThe first single off the album—\"[Strange Overtones](https://bliptext.com/articles/strange-overtones)\"—was released on August 4, 2008, as a free digital download available only through the album's website.\nThe track has been described as \"a song about writing a song\" and features thematic elements of humanity versus technology that are explored throughout the album.\nIt was downloaded over 40,000 times within the first three days it was available.\nIn September 2008, Jon Yeo created a music video for the track featuring the paintings of Brian Eno.\nIn May 2009, the song was replaced by \"One Fine Day\" as a free download to promote the EP [Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour – David Byrne on Tour: Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/everything-that-happens-will-happen-on-this-tour-david-byrne-on-tour-songs-of-david-byrne-and-brian-eno).\n\n# Reception\n\n## Critical reception\nPositive reviews have emphasized the pop songcraft on the album, calling it \"exceedingly pleasant\" ([Billboard](https://bliptext.com/articles/billboard-magazine)) and \"vibrant\" ([Tucson Weekly](https://bliptext.com/articles/tucson-weekly)).\nWriting for the BBC, Chris Jones summed up the album by saying that it would not break any musical boundaries, but listeners will find music that was \"intriguingly and, sometimes, maddeningly infectious.\"\nThe music has been compared to the tone of [alternative rock bands](https://bliptext.com/articles/alternative-rock-bands) [Radiohead](https://bliptext.com/articles/radiohead), [The Flaming Lips](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-flaming-lips), and [R.E.M.](https://bliptext.com/articles/r-e-m)'s 1998 album [Up](https://bliptext.com/articles/up-r-e-m-album).\nFurthermore, Barry Walters of [Spin](https://bliptext.com/articles/spin-magazine) has compared the music to former Eno collaborators U2 and several reviewers have compared the musicality to [Paul Simon](https://bliptext.com/articles/paul-simon) —especially his 2006 Eno collaboration [Surprise](https://bliptext.com/articles/surprise-paul-simon-album).\nThe vocals have been declared similar to [Neil Young](https://bliptext.com/articles/neil-young); and the [arrangement](https://bliptext.com/articles/arrangement) has been compared to [The Beach Boys](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-beach-boys).\nAlthough the music was informed by gospel and digital music, comparisons have been made with genres as diverse as [country](https://bliptext.com/articles/country-music) due to the vocal delivery and [old school hip hop](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-school-hip-hop).\nOne weakness addressed by several reviewers is the unoriginality of the music, especially in comparison to the duo's previous collaborations.\nContrasting Everything That Happens Will Happen Today with My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, some have found a connection between the two.\nReviewers have found similarities in Eno's solo album [Another Green World](https://bliptext.com/articles/another-green-world) and the Eno-produced Talking Heads albums [Fear of Music](https://bliptext.com/articles/fear-of-music) and [Remain in Light](https://bliptext.com/articles/remain-in-light), as well as [Little Creatures](https://bliptext.com/articles/little-creatures-album), which was produced by the band.\nThis is partly due to the unique use of technology in the creation of all of the albums associated with Eno.\nOther commentators have emphasized the differences between the two projects.\nFor instance, [The Age](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-age) [Bernard Zuel](https://bliptext.com/articles/bernard-zuel) considers these expectations built by the earlier work to be \"unfair... and inaccurate.\"\n[The Observer](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-observer) review by [Kitty Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/kitty-empire) labels this album \"conservative\" and John Doran of [The Quietus](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-quietus) calls it \"less exciting\" —[Erie Times-News](https://bliptext.com/articles/erie-times-news) reviewer Dr. Rock goes as far as to call it an \"antithesis\" to Bush of Ghosts.\nIn particular, the experimental nature of the former has been contrasted with the [pop music](https://bliptext.com/articles/pop-music) style of this album and the lack of [African beats](https://bliptext.com/articles/music-of-africa) and [world music](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-music).\nAudra Schroeder of [The Austin Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-austin-chronicle) noted \"Thirty years after first collaborating on the Talking Heads, these two don't have to mine the past since there's nothing that remarkable about Everything.\"\nFrancis Jones summed up his review for [Hot Press](https://bliptext.com/articles/hot-press) by concluding \"No boundaries were harmed in its making but ETHWHT is an album of unquestionably great songs\" and Louise Gray of [New Internationalist](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-internationalist) declared that, \"it's not got the edgy, funky bricolage that characterized the earlier album and nor does it seek that.\"\nAt the same time, other reviewers have found the break with the experimental nature of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts to be positive.\n[Jim DeRogatis](https://bliptext.com/articles/jim-derogatis) from the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago-sun-times) observed:\nReviews have emphasized the contrast between optimism and foreboding on the album, as well as the struggle of humanity against technology.\nIn addition, several reviewers have noted parallels between this album and Byrne's Big Love: Hymnal, particularly their common spiritual themes and atmospheric moods.\n[Resident Advisor](https://bliptext.com/articles/resident-advisor)'s review also notes the shift in Eno's recordings toward more gospel vocals.\nSteve Matteo of [Crawdaddy!](https://bliptext.com/articles/crawdaddy) wrote that Eno's production dominates the album, whereas [Filter](https://bliptext.com/articles/filter-magazine)'s Ken Scrudato considers the album primarily a David Byrne venture.\n[Consequence of Sound](https://bliptext.com/articles/consequence-of-sound)'s review notes continuity between this album and Byrne's 2004 release [Grown Backwards](https://bliptext.com/articles/grown-backwards), while [The Village Voice](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-village-voice) has declared this album \"more expansive and adventurous\" than anything else Byrne has released in decades and [Greg Kot](https://bliptext.com/articles/greg-kot) of [The Chicago Tribune](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-chicago-tribune) wrote that the album features \"one of the strongest vocal performances of Byrne's career.\"\n\n## Awards\nThe album was nominated for three [Grammy Awards](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award)—[Best Alternative Music Album](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award-for-best-alternative-music-album), [Best Recording Package](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award-for-best-recording-package), and [Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award-for-best-boxed-or-special-limited-edition-package)—on December 2, 2008.\nOn February 8, 2009, designer Stefan Sagmeister won the award for Best Recording Package at the [51st Annual Grammy Awards](https://bliptext.com/articles/51st-annual-grammy-awards).\nThe deluxe edition packaging was given a bronze medal by the [Art Directors Club of New York](https://bliptext.com/articles/art-directors-club-of-new-york).\nThe album was nominated for a [Technical Excellence & Creativity Award](https://bliptext.com/articles/tec-awards) in the Record Production/Album category.\nSeveral year-end lists included the album amongst the best releases of 2008:\nDeRogatis' and Kot's reviews were featured on [Sound Opinions](https://bliptext.com/articles/sound-opinions) and the album was also placed on two individual writers' lists for No Ripcord's best of the year.\nTwo contributors to [No Depression](https://bliptext.com/articles/no-depression-magazine) included the album on their best-of lists for 2008.\n[The A.V. Club](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-a-v-club) commissioned celebrities to give their picks for album of the year and [Tim Heidecker](https://bliptext.com/articles/tim-heidecker) chose this album, describing it as \"the most interesting and listenable pop record of the year, in my book.\"\n[The Fader](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-fader)'s 2008 year in review named this one of the \"Top Twelve Albums That We Thought Would Have a Bigger Impact On Our Lives\", but later declared the album \"career-defining.\"\nThe publication dedicated their annual icon issue to Byrne in 2009 in part due to the success of this album.\nSeveral songs from this album appeared on [The Village Voice](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-village-voice)'s [Pazz & Jop](https://bliptext.com/articles/pazz-jop) singles poll for 2008—\"Strange Overtones\" came in at 60, \"Life Is Long\" placed 337, \"My Big Nurse\" was 350, \"Everything That Happens\" ended up at 748, and \"I Feel My Stuff\" reached 942.\nIn addition, a vote was cast for \"Strange Undertones\".\n\n## Sales figures and chart performance\nAlthough the artists have not released sales figures, they have indicated that the album was purchased across the globe during the first 24 hours it was available and that the servers hosting the album delivered \"several [terabytes](https://bliptext.com/articles/terabyte)\" by September 6.\nA report in late December asserted that they had sold \"nearly 20,000 downloads.\"\nIn March 2009, Ian C. Rogers of [Topspin Media](https://bliptext.com/articles/topspin-media) explained that 20 percent of those who listened to the album streaming chose to purchase it and 30 percent of them included a physical copy of the CD; trends that would hold through September of that year.\nBy October 2008, Byrne explained that they had recouped their losses on the album and that sales had \"paid back the recording costs and costs for building the Web site.\"\nHe would later explain that this business model worked well for established acts as well as smaller bands, due to minimal production and distribution costs.\nTheir business model also allowed them to self-release and plan a tour immediately after finishing the music production, rather than wait months for record label advancement.\nThe album did not chart until it was physically released—a development which surprised Byrne.\nIn the first week of December, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today reached the top spot on the [College Music Journal](https://bliptext.com/articles/college-music-journal) AAA charts and third on the CMJ Radio 200.\nThe album entered the Billboard 200 for the week of January 17, 2009, debuting at 182 with 4,008 copies sold.\nIt peaked the following week at 174 before dropping off the charts.\nIt was on the [Independent Albums](https://bliptext.com/articles/independent-albums) chart for 10 weeks, reaching 18.\nByrne's 2012 book [How Music Works](https://bliptext.com/articles/how-music-works) gives a more thorough breakdown of the album's sales and distribution.\nBy the time of publication, he claims to have sold 160,000 copies of the album, making a little over $300,000 in sales:\n\"The $59,850 cost of making this record was only part of what it cost to prepare it for market. All told, the total costs to self-release the album were $315,000—building the website, paying for servers, design fees, promotion, manufacturing, etc. That's a lot more than any indie band could ever afford. We wound up generating $964,000 in total income. So minus the $315,000 in expenses, that left us with $649,000, 50 percent of which went to Eno, leaving me with $324,500. Since we were the record company, we paid our own mechanicals out of our profit.\nI was elated.\nHere, finally, was the future.\nI made $324,500 on this 'self-distributed' record, compared to the $58,000 I made on the standard royalty-deal record Grown Backwards—and the two sold nearly the same number of copies: 140,000 for Grown Backwards, and 160,000 for Everything That Happens.\nWow, the writing is on the wall here!\nWell, that enthusiasm might be justified if you can afford the $315,000 that we paid to assemble the apparatus needed to make, sell, and market a record.\n(It should be pointed out that some of those costs were start-up, learning-as-you go costs. Presumably they wouldn't be as high down the road, as the infrastructure has been built.)\"\n\n# Promotion\nSongs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour performers.jpg–Baker Hall in [Bethlehem, Pennsylvania](https://bliptext.com/articles/bethlehem-pennsylvania). (Left to right):\nBack: [Mauro Refosco](https://bliptext.com/articles/mauro-refosco) ([percussion](https://bliptext.com/articles/percussion-instrument)), [Graham Hawthorne](https://bliptext.com/articles/graham-hawthorne) ([drums](https://bliptext.com/articles/drum-kit)), and [Mark De Gli Antoni](https://bliptext.com/articles/mark-de-gli-antoni) ([keyboards](https://bliptext.com/articles/keyboard-instrument))\nMiddle: [Kaïssa](https://bliptext.com/articles/ka-ssa) ([background vocals](https://bliptext.com/articles/backing-vocalist)), [Redray Frazier](https://bliptext.com/articles/redray-frazier) ([background vocals](https://bliptext.com/articles/backing-vocalist)), Jenni Muldaur ([background vocals](https://bliptext.com/articles/backing-vocalist)), and [Paul Frazier](https://bliptext.com/articles/paul-frazier) ([bass guitar](https://bliptext.com/articles/bass-guitar))\nFront: [Steven Reker](https://bliptext.com/articles/steven-reker) ([dancing](https://bliptext.com/articles/dance)), Byrne ([vocals](https://bliptext.com/articles/singing) and [guitar](https://bliptext.com/articles/guitar)), [Natalie Kuhn](https://bliptext.com/articles/natalie-kuhn) ([dancing](https://bliptext.com/articles/dance)), and [Lily Baldwin](https://bliptext.com/articles/lily-baldwin) ([dancing](https://bliptext.com/articles/dance))]]\nWhile Byrne and Eno did a few interviews for the album and subsequent tour, the two attempted to market the album via word-of-mouth and Internet hype rather than a traditional marketing scheme.\nEno was convinced in part because of his own preferences for digital music from the [iTunes Store](https://bliptext.com/articles/itunes-store) rather than CDs as well as the success of [Radiohead](https://bliptext.com/articles/radiohead)'s 2007 album [In Rainbows](https://bliptext.com/articles/in-rainbows) and the self-promotional strategies of [Nine Inch Nails](https://bliptext.com/articles/nine-inch-nails) for the albums [Year Zero](https://bliptext.com/articles/year-zero-album), [Ghosts I–IV](https://bliptext.com/articles/ghosts-i-iv), and [The Slip](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-slip-album).\nByrne was also impressed by Radiohead's release strategy as a means of valuing music.\nThe duo carefully avoided [Internet leaks](https://bliptext.com/articles/music-leak) by not giving out promotional copies of the album to journalists, but Byrne did preview the song \"One Fine Day\" prior to the release by performing it with a choir of senior citizens and Eno invited Mark Coles for the [BBC World Service](https://bliptext.com/articles/bbc-world-service) program The Beat to his home to listen to the songs on Eno's laptop.\nIn 2017, Byrne revealed that he and Eno had collaborated again on Byrne's next solo album.\nIn 2010, several of the songs from this album—\"Home\", \"I Feel My Stuff\", \"Life Is Long\", \"My Big Nurse\", and \"Strange Overtones\"—were included in the Todo Mundo [soundtrack album](https://bliptext.com/articles/wall-street-money-never-sleeps-soundtrack) to the film [Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps](https://bliptext.com/articles/wall-street-money-never-sleeps) along with other David Byrne songs.\n\n## Marketing\nByrne and Eno have both expressed their displeasure with the [music industry](https://bliptext.com/articles/music-industry) and traditional models of marketing music, with Eno calling the music business an \"exciting mess\" and saying:\nByrne has written for [Wired](https://bliptext.com/articles/wired-magazine), outlining the relative merits of different distribution models with this one reflecting his \"self-distribution model\" in which \"the artist stands to receive the largest percentage of income from sales per unit—sales of anything. A larger percentage of fewer sales, most likely, but not always. Artists doing it for themselves can actually make more money than the massive pop star, even though the sales numbers may seem minuscule by comparison.\"\nThe motivation for creating and marketing this album directly came in part from the very article Byrne wrote as well as Eno's belief that music fans want more than just the music on an album and prefer collectible deluxe editions as well as the live performances that promote them.\nA month after releasing the album, Byrne was skeptical of market saturation claiming \"I sense that a lot of people don't know we have a record out\" and hoped to counterbalance that ignorance with his tour.\nHe also described the digital music market as \"so infinite [that] it's easy for music to get lost out there\" and has noted that this business model would not work for performers who are not already established.\nThe duo enlisted a music marketing [startup company](https://bliptext.com/articles/startup-company)—Topspin Media —to design their site, delivery options for the digital music, and promotional [web widgets](https://bliptext.com/articles/web-widget).\nLike the entirety of the recording process, the marketing was self-financed and controlled by the artists, with Topspin taking a portion of the money made from digital sales.\nThis allowed the artists to control creative aspects of producing music as well as the [overhead costs](https://bliptext.com/articles/overhead-business) associated with marketing an album.\nThe company used [viral marketing](https://bliptext.com/articles/viral-marketing) techniques to collect potential customers' e-mail addresses and encourage them to post the album streaming on their [blogs](https://bliptext.com/articles/blog).\nBy early November, the collected e-mail addresses amounted to 37 percent of the album sales.\nTopspin has also created a [Flickr](https://bliptext.com/articles/flickr) pool encouraging users to upload [screenshots](https://bliptext.com/articles/screenshot) of the widget posted to web sites.\nNo advertisements were taken out for the album.\nByrne and Eno were praised by [Fast Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/fast-company-magazine) for their innovative use of Internet marketing and distribution for this album as well as several other releases and the promotion of this album has been lauded as a way of undermining [copyright infringement](https://bliptext.com/articles/copyright-infringement).\nKey to their success was the software that Topspin Media developed and later commercially released as a bundle for other companies and artists to use, explaining that \"In the first eight weeks following the launch of the David Byrne and Brian Eno self-released record, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, the Topspin platform helped us generate [Direct-to-Fan](https://bliptext.com/articles/direct-to-fan) revenue at the very least the equivalent to what we would have expected from a label advance,\" that went directly to Byrne and Eno.\nBased in part on the success of marketing this album, representatives of Topspin were invited to teach a course on music marketing at [Berklee College of Music](https://bliptext.com/articles/berklee-college-of-music) in September 2009 and Ian C. Rogers led a panel discussion at [South by Southwest](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-by-southwest) on options for independent music artists.\nThe album's multiple formats have been praised as a method of incentivizing buying physical copies of albums.\n\n## Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour\nByrne assembled a band to tour for the album, performing music throughout the latter half of 2008 and early 2009 across North America, Europe, and Australasia.\nHe hired more singers than he had on previous tours to reproduce the complex vocal harmonies of the album and was inspired to bring along dancers after seeing [Sufjan Stevens](https://bliptext.com/articles/sufjan-stevens) promote the album [Illinois](https://bliptext.com/articles/illinois-sufjan-stevens-album) as well as the Japanese films [Funky Forest](https://bliptext.com/articles/funky-forest) and [The Taste of Tea](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-taste-of-tea).\nByrne was initially uninvolved in the choreography, but made more suggestions as the tour went on and after he saw a live performance by [Deerhoof](https://bliptext.com/articles/deerhoof) that incorporated dancing with instruments.\nHe began booking tour dates before the album was completed and continued writing his book The Bicycle Diaries throughout the tour.\nIn planning the set lists for the tour, Byrne initially considered only promoting this album but decided to include songs from his previous collaborations with Eno as well, including the Talking Heads albums [More Songs About Buildings and Food](https://bliptext.com/articles/more-songs-about-buildings-and-food), [Fear of Music](https://bliptext.com/articles/fear-of-music), and [Remain in Light](https://bliptext.com/articles/remain-in-light) and Byrne's [The Catherine Wheel](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-catherine-wheel-album) soundtrack.\nBy playing music from all of their collaborations, Byrne hoped to \"draw a line linking this new material with what we did 30 years ago\" with the goal of clarifying the connection between all of the duo's previous work.\nIn reviewing their past music, he found that \"[t]here might be more continuity than I imagined, which I hope is going to work in my favor.\"\nAlthough Eno was invited to participate and early reports indicated that he would, Eno ultimately chose not to tour with Byrne, letting Byrne decide how to present this music live.\n# [Eno was rumored to participate in the Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour, but only appeared onstage once for a brief cameo. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Brian///Eno///Long///Now///Foundation///2006.jpg]\n\n## Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour\nOn May 11, 2009, the live EP [Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour – David Byrne on Tour: Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/everything-that-happens-will-happen-on-this-tour-david-byrne-on-tour-songs-of-david-byrne-and-brian-eno) was released digitally through Todo Mundo to benefit [Amnesty International](https://bliptext.com/articles/amnesty-international).\nThe album features four songs recorded in December 2008 on the tour.\nTopspin Media offered the same digital download options to purchase the EP and the company created a second [embeddable](https://bliptext.com/articles/embedded-system) [media player](https://bliptext.com/articles/media-player-application-software) to promote the album.\n\n## Ride, Rise, Roar\nOn February 11, 2010, it was announced that a documentary film entitled Ride, Rise, Roar chronicling the tour would be released to the 2010 [film festival](https://bliptext.com/articles/film-festival) circuit.\nThe debut was at South by Southwest on March 15, 2010, where it was screened in all three media categories—film, interactive, and music.\nByrne attended some British screenings for question and answer sessions.\nRide, Rise, Roar is the feature-length directorial debut by Hillman Curtis —Byrne approached him after his satisfaction with the short film that accompanies the deluxe edition of Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.\nThe documentary includes concert footage, film of the planning and rehearsals for the tour, and exclusive interviews with Byrne, Eno, and the supporting musicians and dancers.\nCurtis was initially contacted to document the tour with no clear objective for the film and decided to focus on the collaboration between Byrne and his tour mates as well as the unique challenge of combining [popular music](https://bliptext.com/articles/popular-music) with [modern dance](https://bliptext.com/articles/modern-dance).\n# [The performances on the Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour included matching costumes, such as the white jumpsuit and tutu that Byrne is wearing here. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/DavidByrneFestivalHall2009.jpg]\n\n# Track listing\nAll lyrics written by [David Byrne](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-byrne); all music by Byrne (vocals) and [Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/brian-eno) (instrumentation), except \"Strange Overtones\" co-written by [Leo Abrahams](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-abrahams).\n**Japanese release**\n**Deluxe Edition bonus tracks**\n\n# Personnel\n**\"Home\"**\n**\"My Big Nurse\"**\n**\"I Feel My Stuff\"**\n**\"Everything That Happens\"**\n**\"Life Is Long\"**\n**\"The River\"**\n**\"Strange Overtones\"**\n**\"Wanted for Life\"**\n**\"One Fine Day\"**\n**\"Poor Boy\"**\n**\"The Lighthouse\"**\n**\"Never Thought\"**\n**\"Walking Along the River\"**\n**\"The Eyes\"**\n**\"The Painting\"**\n**Other**","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-26T10:58:55.867Z","updated_at":"2025-01-26T10:58:55.867Z","search_vector":"'everyth':1 'happen':3,5 'today':6","search_content":" \n \n**Name:** Everything That Happens Will Happen Today \n**Type:** studio \n**Artist:** [David Byrne](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-byrne) and [Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/brian-eno) \n**Released:** August 18, 2008 \n**Recorded:** [Demoed](https://bliptext.com/articles/demo-music) by Eno in his [London](https://bliptext.com/articles/london) home studio through 2006, finished by Byrne and [Leo Abrahams](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-abrahams) in their [New York City](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-city) and [London](https://bliptext.com/articles/london) home studios through 2008; additional instrumentation recorded at Cafe Music Studios and at Harder Sound in [New York City](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-city). \n**Genre:** [Electronic](https://bliptext.com/articles/electronic-music) · [folktronica](https://bliptext.com/articles/folktronica) · [gospel](https://bliptext.com/articles/gospel-music) \n**Length:** 47:16 \n**Label:** [Todo Mundo](https://bliptext.com/articles/todo-mundo) \n**Producer:** [David Byrne](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-byrne) and [Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/brian-eno), additional production by [Leo Abrahams](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-abrahams) \n**Prev Title:** [My Life in the Bush of Ghosts](https://bliptext.com/articles/my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts-album) \n**Prev Year:** 1981 \n \n\n# \n**Everything That Happens Will Happen Today** is the second collaborative studio album by [David Byrne](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-byrne) and [Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/brian-eno), released on August 18, 2008, by [Todo Mundo](https://bliptext.com/articles/todo-mundo).\nMarking Byrne's eighth studio effort overall and Byrne and Eno's first joint project in nearly 30years, the album explores themes of humanity versus technology and optimism in spite of bleak circumstance through the blending of [electronic](https://bliptext.com/articles/electronic-music) and [gospel music](https://bliptext.com/articles/gospel-music).\nCritical reception was largely positive and the album received awards for both the musical content as well as the packaging and technical production.\nThis album is the first joint effort between the two musicians since 1981's [My Life in the Bush of Ghosts](https://bliptext.com/articles/my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts-album) and Eno's work [producing](https://bliptext.com/articles/record-producer) and co-writing with [Talking Heads](https://bliptext.com/articles/talking-heads).\nByrne and Eno worked on the tracks in their home studios throughout 2007 and early 2008 and sent digital copies of the recordings to one another over e-mail.\nThe single \"[Strange Overtones](https://bliptext.com/articles/strange-overtones)\" was released for free to promote the album and Byrne [toured through 2008 and 2009](https://bliptext.com/articles/songs-of-david-byrne-and-brian-eno-tour), performing songs from this release as well as the duo's previous collaborations.\nThis tour was later documented with the live [extended play](https://bliptext.com/articles/extended-play) [Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour – David Byrne on Tour: Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/everything-that-happens-will-happen-on-this-tour-david-byrne-on-tour-songs-of-david-byrne-and-brian-eno) and the [concert film](https://bliptext.com/articles/concert-film) [Ride, Rise, Roar](https://bliptext.com/articles/ride-rise-roar).\nEverything That Happens Will Happen Today was released with a marketing strategy that involved Byrne creating the [vanity label](https://bliptext.com/articles/vanity-label) Todo Mundo and hiring Internet startup company [Topspin Media](https://bliptext.com/articles/topspin-media) to promote the album online using word-of-mouth and Internet sales to market the music.\nSeveral formats were created to allow users to have options on how to listen to the music—from free streaming audio to a deluxe package housed in a tin.\n\n# Background\nIn December 2007, David Byrne announced on the [ BBC Radio](https://bliptext.com/articles/bbc-radio) music show The Weekender that he was working with former collaborator Brian Eno on a brand new album of \"proper songs,\" describing it as a \"completely different thing\" from the [experimental](https://bliptext.com/articles/experimental-music) [My Life in the Bush of Ghosts](https://bliptext.com/articles/my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts-album).\nWhile the two were discussing the 2006 re-release of that album at a dinner party, Eno suggested adding lyrics and vocals to some of his unfinished songs, some of which were eight years old.\nThe duo did not initially plan on making an entire album, but eventually felt confident enough to finish a full collection of songs.\nAlthough the two had discussed making an album together for several years, this was their first sincere effort since the early 1980s.\nByrne visited Eno's London studio to listen to the [demos](https://bliptext.com/articles/demo-music) and the two decided to collaborate to finish writing the songs, leaving Eno and [Peter Chilvers](https://bliptext.com/articles/peter-chilvers-musician) to convert a variety of [digital music](https://bliptext.com/articles/digital-audio) formats into MIDI, thereby stripping out extraneous information and making them suitable for Byrne to embellish.\n(Chilvers would be thanked in the [liner notes](https://bliptext.com/articles/liner-notes) for \"Digital Archaeology\".) The two continued to work on this and other musical projects for several months and agreed that if the project was not enjoyable, they would abandon it.\nThe duo decided to not announce their new collaboration for fear that they may not complete an album's worth of new material, or that they would end up re-treading their previous collaborations and decide against releasing the new songs.\n\n## Composition\nEno had several musical compositions, but could not write lyrics to accompany them, whereas Byrne had several lyrics with no accompaniment.\nEno wanted to make the vocals the \"central event\" of the music by pairing gospel singing with unexpected electronic music that also included elements of [West African music](https://bliptext.com/articles/music-of-west-africa).\nThe songwriting's emphasis on vocals was partially inspired by [Phillip Bimstein](https://bliptext.com/articles/phillip-bimstein).\nIn late 2007, Byrne took a [compact disc](https://bliptext.com/articles/compact-disc) of [stereo](https://bliptext.com/articles/stereophonic-sound) mixes of the demos from Eno and spent a year trying to write lyrics to finish the songs, attempting to balance the simple [chords](https://bliptext.com/articles/chord-music) that Eno had written with the more complex ones Byrne prefers.\nAlthough it was uncharacteristic for Eno, many of the songs were written on [acoustic guitar](https://bliptext.com/articles/acoustic-guitar), with the help of [Steinberg Cubase](https://bliptext.com/articles/steinberg-cubase).\nThe musicians exchanged Eno's demos with the lyrics and vocal melodies completed by Byrne over e-mail and by June 2008, 14 songs had been recorded.\nEno initially gave positive feedback, which encouraged Byrne to continue writing and only became critical as the project was finishing.\nToward the end of the recording, Eno sent increasingly challenging tracks to see if Byrne could complete them—the final two ended up on the album as \"I Feel My Stuff\" and \"Poor Boy\".\nAt the outset, Byrne was hesitant to add lyrics to the tracks because they sounded too much like [folk music](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-music).\nHe characterized the process as very slow and full of trepidation, in part because of expectations from their previous collaboration and also due to the strict division of labor they had between writing instrumentation and vocalization.\nEno only provided a few vocal demos and suggested simple changes like adding an extra verse.\nByrne made minimal changes to the instrumentation on several tracks and avoided changing chords in the melody to suit his singing style.\nThe duo only worked in the studio together on two occasions, including one full week and a weekend on another occasion and neither partner got a veto in the process of track selection or [production](https://bliptext.com/articles/record-producer).\nAccording to Byrne, the main challenge in this writing technique \"was more emotional than technical: to write simple heartfelt tunes without drawing on cliché.\"\nHe later explained, \"In a nutshell, Brian wrote most of the music, and I composed most of the vocal melodies and lyrics, and then sang them.\"\nIf Byrne's vocal harmonies were radical enough, Eno would revise the instrumentation to accompany it, but Byrne avoided writing instrumentation and chose to adapt to the instrumentals as written.\nUsing a style similar to the Talking Heads album [Speaking in Tongues](https://bliptext.com/articles/speaking-in-tongues-talking-heads-album), Byrne [scatted](https://bliptext.com/articles/scat-singing) and murmured some lyrics before they were completed, due to Byrne's preference for the sonic quality of lyrics rather than their literal meaning and his method of writing lyrics using free association.\nIn composing lyrics for the album, Byrne attempted to write keeping in mind what would please Eno as his collaborator.\nHe also attempted to write harmonies for Eno, who decided against singing any lead vocals on the album.\nEno does perform backing vocals throughout the album, which he credits on one track as \"inhuman piano\"\nBoth musicians continued to work on their own projects during the composition of Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.\nByrne [wrote the score for the second season](https://bliptext.com/articles/big-love-hymnal) of [Big Love](https://bliptext.com/articles/big-love) and completed his collaborations with [Fatboy Slim](https://bliptext.com/articles/fatboy-slim) on the album and [musical](https://bliptext.com/articles/rock-musical) [Here Lies Love](https://bliptext.com/articles/here-lies-love) and the [single](https://bliptext.com/articles/single-music) \"[Toe Jam](https://bliptext.com/articles/toe-jam-the-brighton-port-authority-song)\".\nEno produced [Coldplay](https://bliptext.com/articles/coldplay)'s [Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends](https://bliptext.com/articles/viva-la-vida-or-death-and-all-his-friends) and [U2](https://bliptext.com/articles/u2)'s [No Line on the Horizon](https://bliptext.com/articles/no-line-on-the-horizon).\nByrne and Eno discussed the former's collaboration with Fatboy Slim and [Chris Martin](https://bliptext.com/articles/chris-martin) of Coldplay wrote lyrics to the instrumental track for \"One Fine Day\", but acquiesced when he heard Byrne's version (the band would also adapt another one of Eno's instrumental compositions that Byrne did not finish into a track on Viva la Vida).\nOnce Byrne's version of \"One Fine Day\" was finished, the two began in earnest writing the rest of the tracks.\nByrne initially had a long delay in writing material, but as the project progressed, he began working several hours a day on the album and put his collaboration with Fatboy Slim on hold to finish the songs in the early part of 2008.\nSince the two did not work together face-to-face as they had in the past, it was harder for them to complete material quickly, and they had to rush to finish two of the tracks at the end of the sessions.\nHe later described the process as easy once details were sorted out and summed up this method as \"pure joy\" and declared writing collaboratively to be easier than writing solo.\nHe even credited the time between their last collaboration and the transatlantic distance as a strength, since it allowed the two to keep their own schedules.\nEno agreed, as it gave him time to focus on a small piece of music without holding up Byrne's progress.\nByrne later used a similar approach through 2010 and 2011 in collaborations with [St. Vincent](https://bliptext.com/articles/st-vincent-musician) ([Love This Giant](https://bliptext.com/articles/love-this-giant)) and [Will Oldham](https://bliptext.com/articles/will-oldham) (the soundtrack to [This Must Be the Place](https://bliptext.com/articles/this-must-be-the-place-film)).\n\n## Themes\nThe two were inspired by [gospel music](https://bliptext.com/articles/gospel-music) and both have described their music as \"electronic gospel\"—in particular the tracks \"Life Is Long\" and \"One Fine Day\".\nIn addition to subtle [Biblical](https://bliptext.com/articles/bible) themes in the lyrics, Eno was influenced by gospel musicality, which he initially discovered through Talking Heads while working on [More Songs About Buildings and Food](https://bliptext.com/articles/more-songs-about-buildings-and-food) by listening to \"Surrender to His Will\" by Reverend Maceo Woods and The Christian Tabernacle Choir.\nFor several years leading up to this project, Eno had primarily listened to gospel music—even joining a gospel [choir](https://bliptext.com/articles/choir) —and was attracted to the music's unrestrained vocals and lack of pessimism as well as its inclusive nature.\nEno had been thinking about gospel for several years, but could not write lyrics to hopeful songs.\nWhile Byrne considers the music \"[un]like any contemporary gospel record that you would hear out there,\" it is \"informed by that feeling and those kind of lyrics, which allude to hope in the face of despair.\"\nEno also considers the album \"something that combines something very human and fallible and personal, with something very electronic and mathematical sometimes.\"\nThe music combines electronic and gospel influences to \"make that picture of the human still trying to survive in an increasingly complicated digital world... It's quite easy to make just digital music and it's quite easy to make just human music, but to try and make a combination is sort of, exciting, I think.\"\nTracks such as \"My Big Nurse\" combine [apocalypticism](https://bliptext.com/articles/apocalypticism) and comfort, blending hopefulness and despair.\nThe instrumental demos were primarily written in [major chords](https://bliptext.com/articles/major-chord), which Byrne considered slightly \"ominous\" and surprising from Eno.\nIn spite of this, Byrne's lyrics ended up being hopeful and spiritual, with themes of redemption —what he considers \"optimism in spite of the dread.\"\nThe tension between optimism and pessimism and the spiritual themes quickly emerged over the course of a year in which Byrne was writing lyrics, which he has speculated might be an antidote to being \"completely pessimistic and cynical about politics and the state of the world;\" for instance, \"The River\" is about the [effects](https://bliptext.com/articles/hurricane-katrina-effects-by-region) of [Hurricane Katrina](https://bliptext.com/articles/hurricane-katrina).\nHe has also cited the political climate of the [Iraq War](https://bliptext.com/articles/iraq-war), the beginning of the [late-2000s recession](https://bliptext.com/articles/late-2000s-recession), the policies of the [George W. Bush administration](https://bliptext.com/articles/presidency-of-george-w-bush), and his 2004 divorce from [Adelle Lutz](https://bliptext.com/articles/adelle-lutz) as factors that inspired him to create uplifting music.\nAs he explained, \"I was surprised that's what came out... The tracks are very different from what I would have done myself. I lean toward things that are more complicated.\"\nEno also thinks the album is much better than the songs he imagined when composing them solo.\nEno has also said the album is about \"paint[ing] a picture of the human trying to survive in an increasingly digital world\" and Byrne considered his job as lyricist to \"bring more humanity\" to Eno's instrumentals, which can be \"cold and academic.\"\nThemes of humanity struggling with technology are apparent on several tracks and Byrne has characterized the \"overall vibe\" of the album as \"We're going to get through this. Humanity will prevail.\"\nThe lyrical content includes \"a sinister inflection\" but \"many songs feel fairly uplifting and the overall tone is hopeful.\"\nByrne focused on mundane events and attempted to write in a style that was \"simple but not corny, basic but heartfelt.\"\nHis inspiration in writing lyrics for \"One Fine Day\" was the story of [Valentino Achak Deng](https://bliptext.com/articles/valentino-achak-deng) as told in [Dave Eggers](https://bliptext.com/articles/dave-eggers)' [What Is the What](https://bliptext.com/articles/what-is-the-what-the-autobiography-of-valentino-achak-deng) —the two are thanked in the liner notes and Byrne had previously performed at a fundraiser for Eggers' [826 Valencia](https://bliptext.com/articles/826-valencia).\nThe story of the [Lost Boys of Sudan](https://bliptext.com/articles/lost-boys-of-sudan) is emblematic of the spiritual themes of the album as they go through \"all kinds of unrelenting horrors, but [are] eternally hopeful and even cheerful, in a way that defies all logic.\"\nThe music on this album also expresses [homesickness](https://bliptext.com/articles/homesickness)—a lyrical trend that is apparent in Byrne's work with Talking Heads.\n# [The story of Valentino Achak Deng (left)—as told by Dave Eggers (right) in the 2006 novel What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng—inspired Byrne to write hopeful lyrics. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Valentino///Deng///%26///Dave///Eggers///in///San///Mateo///10-1-08///1.JPG]\n\n## Production\nBy March 2008, the duo had recruited [Seb Rochford](https://bliptext.com/articles/seb-rochford) to play [drums](https://bliptext.com/articles/drum-kit) with Byrne in [New York City](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-york-city).\nLater that month, multi-instrumentalist and previous Eno collaborator [Leo Abrahams](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-abrahams) was enlisted to perform [guitar](https://bliptext.com/articles/guitar), [percussion instruments](https://bliptext.com/articles/percussion-instrument), and [piano](https://bliptext.com/articles/piano) in his London home studio.\nAbrahams and Rochford would continue working on the tracks in Abrahams' studio through May and their work was e-mailed to other collaborators—Byrne attended one session to play guitar.\nOther musicians worked with Byrne in New York City and Eno in London, such as frequent Byrne collaborator [Mauro Refosco](https://bliptext.com/articles/mauro-refosco), Eno's daughters Darla and Irial, and [Jarvis Cocker](https://bliptext.com/articles/jarvis-cocker) of [Pulp](https://bliptext.com/articles/pulp-band), who added uncredited guitar in London.\nThe duo attempted to record as much of the music from home studios as possible and played almost all instrumentation themselves, saving the [drums](https://bliptext.com/articles/drum-kit) and percussion for the studio.\nIn addition to the tracks that were released, the musicians had some other instrumentals that Byrne did not complete.\nSpeaking at an April 2008 event in New York, Byrne confirmed the release of a new album, calling it a \"record of sung songs\" in contrast to the experimental music from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and later told the [New York Daily News](https://bliptext.com/articles/daily-news-new-york) that \"Brian had written a lot of music, but needed some words, which I know how to do. What's it sound like? Electronic gospel. That's all I'm saying.\"\nEno also explained the differences between this album and their previous one saying, \"[T]his is quite different from My Life in that the intention of that album was to not use our voices at all, but instead to find voices and stick them on to the music. This new one is different—these are songs written and sung by David... They go from electronic [folk](https://bliptext.com/articles/folk-music) gospel to quite indefinable areas of music.\"\nThroughout the middle of the year, Abrahams recorded drums at his home studio and Cherif Hashizume recorded more at Cafe Music Studios, while Robert Harder at Harder Sound recorded the drums on \"My Big Nurse\", \"Never Thought\", \"The Painting\", and \"Life Is Long\".\nAbrahams collected all of the recordings to have them mixed and Byrne booked tour dates in anticipation of completing the album.\nMixing continued through June 2008 in New York by previous Byrne collaborator Patrick Dillett at Kampo Studios, who recorded [brass](https://bliptext.com/articles/brass-instrument) and percussion.\nThey e-mailed the mixes to Eno for final approval and sent the finalized audio to [Greg Calbi](https://bliptext.com/articles/greg-calbi) at Sterling Sound for [mastering](https://bliptext.com/articles/audio-mastering).\nOn July 28, 2008, details of the album became public knowledge when Byrne posted on his [blog](https://bliptext.com/articles/blog) that he and Eno had finished the new album and it would be released on August 18.\nThe album website was launched on the same day, with a promotional video of Byrne introducing the new album.\n# [Jarvis Cocker—pictured here performing in 2008—was brought in to play uncredited guitar on Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Jarvis///Cocker///Webster///Hall.jpg]\n\n## Design\nThe physical releases of the album came with graphics and packaging designed by [Stefan Sagmeister](https://bliptext.com/articles/stefan-sagmeister) with Richard The, Joe Shouldice, and Jared Stone; illustration by Stephan Walter; and production by [Gamil Design](https://bliptext.com/articles/gamil-design).\nSagmeister had earlier received a [Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award-for-best-boxed-or-special-limited-edition-package) [Grammy](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award) in 2005 for [art direction](https://bliptext.com/articles/art-director) on the Talking Heads' [Once in a Lifetime](https://bliptext.com/articles/once-in-a-lifetime-talking-heads-album) box set and also designed the cover to Byrne's [Feelings](https://bliptext.com/articles/feelings-david-byrne-album).\nThis album would also win a Grammy in 2010 for Best Record Packaging and was additionally recognized by [Creative Review](https://bliptext.com/articles/creative-review).\nHis inspiration for the packaging was based on the song \"Home\" and the artwork reflects an urban scene of a house by a roadside; the [liner notes](https://bliptext.com/articles/liner-notes) provide closeups on the home and the artwork on the Compact Disc is the grass from the lawn.\nSagmeister proceeded to create not only an image for the cover, but an entire three-dimensional model for the house, which was later released as the deluxe edition packaging.\nUpon repeated listenings to the album, he became convinced that there was a sinister element to the setting and provided clues to the \"dark edge\" of the scene, such as a discarded [condom](https://bliptext.com/articles/condom) wrapper in the gutter, a man looking out the window with binoculars, and a gasoline canteen in the kitchen.\nThe deluxe package comes in a tin with a microchip that plays a sound of someone walking down a hallway in the house and slamming a door when the package is opened.\nThe urban themes of the packaging are expanded in this edition, with the album entitled \"Stick\" and the bonus content \"Rock\"; discs are designed to look like they are covered in grass.\nThis design of a [pixelated](https://bliptext.com/articles/pixelation), [dimetric projection](https://bliptext.com/articles/axonometric-projection) domestic scene has been compared to [The Sims](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-sims).\n# [Designer Stefan Sagmeister was inspired by the music to create a domestic scene with a \"dark edge\", such as this roof with a discarded condom wrapper in the gutter. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Everything///That///Happens///Will///Happen///Today///closeup.png]\n\n# Release\nThe album was self-released on August 18, 2008, exclusively through the album's website.\nIt was made available there free for [streaming](https://bliptext.com/articles/streaming-media) and for purchase as a download of [ DRM ](https://bliptext.com/articles/digital-rights-management)-free [ MP3 s](https://bliptext.com/articles/mp3).\nThe duo released the album from other online [digital music](https://bliptext.com/articles/digital-music) services starting the following month, including [7digital](https://bliptext.com/articles/7digital), [Amazon MP3](https://bliptext.com/articles/amazon-mp3), [eMusic](https://bliptext.com/articles/emusic), the [iTunes Store](https://bliptext.com/articles/itunes-store), [Napster](https://bliptext.com/articles/napster-pay-service), and the [Zune Marketplace](https://bliptext.com/articles/zune-marketplace).\nNo record label was involved in releasing the digital format and independent distributors were allowed to handle the physical product, which was released on November 25 as an [enhanced CD ](https://bliptext.com/articles/enhanced-cd)and a deluxe-packaged CD in a tin.\n\n## Formats and release history\nInitially, three distinct versions of the album were released:\nIn addition, customers are entitled to [lossless](https://bliptext.com/articles/lossless-data-compression) [ FLAC ](https://bliptext.com/articles/free-lossless-audio-codec)versions of the album at no extra cost.\nBy mid-December 2008, 12 percent of customers chose to download the FLAC option.\nThis album is catalogued as the second release from Byrne's vanity label Todo Mundo after [Big Love: Hymnal](https://bliptext.com/articles/big-love-hymnal); copies of the CD were marked CD-TODO-002.\nThe CD was released in Japan with a bonus track—\"Poor Boy\" (Eno & Leo Abrahams Remix)—and [obi strip](https://bliptext.com/articles/obi-strip) in November 2008 through [Beat Records](https://bliptext.com/articles/beat-records-japan) with catalogue number BRC-218.\nOn February 17, 2009, the album was released on 180-gram [vinyl LP](https://bliptext.com/articles/lp-album) as LP-TODO-002.\n\n## Singles\nThe first single off the album—\"[Strange Overtones](https://bliptext.com/articles/strange-overtones)\"—was released on August 4, 2008, as a free digital download available only through the album's website.\nThe track has been described as \"a song about writing a song\" and features thematic elements of humanity versus technology that are explored throughout the album.\nIt was downloaded over 40,000 times within the first three days it was available.\nIn September 2008, Jon Yeo created a music video for the track featuring the paintings of Brian Eno.\nIn May 2009, the song was replaced by \"One Fine Day\" as a free download to promote the EP [Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour – David Byrne on Tour: Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/everything-that-happens-will-happen-on-this-tour-david-byrne-on-tour-songs-of-david-byrne-and-brian-eno).\n\n# Reception\n\n## Critical reception\nPositive reviews have emphasized the pop songcraft on the album, calling it \"exceedingly pleasant\" ([Billboard](https://bliptext.com/articles/billboard-magazine)) and \"vibrant\" ([Tucson Weekly](https://bliptext.com/articles/tucson-weekly)).\nWriting for the BBC, Chris Jones summed up the album by saying that it would not break any musical boundaries, but listeners will find music that was \"intriguingly and, sometimes, maddeningly infectious.\"\nThe music has been compared to the tone of [alternative rock bands](https://bliptext.com/articles/alternative-rock-bands) [Radiohead](https://bliptext.com/articles/radiohead), [The Flaming Lips](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-flaming-lips), and [R.E.M.](https://bliptext.com/articles/r-e-m)'s 1998 album [Up](https://bliptext.com/articles/up-r-e-m-album).\nFurthermore, Barry Walters of [Spin](https://bliptext.com/articles/spin-magazine) has compared the music to former Eno collaborators U2 and several reviewers have compared the musicality to [Paul Simon](https://bliptext.com/articles/paul-simon) —especially his 2006 Eno collaboration [Surprise](https://bliptext.com/articles/surprise-paul-simon-album).\nThe vocals have been declared similar to [Neil Young](https://bliptext.com/articles/neil-young); and the [arrangement](https://bliptext.com/articles/arrangement) has been compared to [The Beach Boys](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-beach-boys).\nAlthough the music was informed by gospel and digital music, comparisons have been made with genres as diverse as [country](https://bliptext.com/articles/country-music) due to the vocal delivery and [old school hip hop](https://bliptext.com/articles/old-school-hip-hop).\nOne weakness addressed by several reviewers is the unoriginality of the music, especially in comparison to the duo's previous collaborations.\nContrasting Everything That Happens Will Happen Today with My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, some have found a connection between the two.\nReviewers have found similarities in Eno's solo album [Another Green World](https://bliptext.com/articles/another-green-world) and the Eno-produced Talking Heads albums [Fear of Music](https://bliptext.com/articles/fear-of-music) and [Remain in Light](https://bliptext.com/articles/remain-in-light), as well as [Little Creatures](https://bliptext.com/articles/little-creatures-album), which was produced by the band.\nThis is partly due to the unique use of technology in the creation of all of the albums associated with Eno.\nOther commentators have emphasized the differences between the two projects.\nFor instance, [The Age](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-age) [Bernard Zuel](https://bliptext.com/articles/bernard-zuel) considers these expectations built by the earlier work to be \"unfair... and inaccurate.\"\n[The Observer](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-observer) review by [Kitty Empire](https://bliptext.com/articles/kitty-empire) labels this album \"conservative\" and John Doran of [The Quietus](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-quietus) calls it \"less exciting\" —[Erie Times-News](https://bliptext.com/articles/erie-times-news) reviewer Dr. Rock goes as far as to call it an \"antithesis\" to Bush of Ghosts.\nIn particular, the experimental nature of the former has been contrasted with the [pop music](https://bliptext.com/articles/pop-music) style of this album and the lack of [African beats](https://bliptext.com/articles/music-of-africa) and [world music](https://bliptext.com/articles/world-music).\nAudra Schroeder of [The Austin Chronicle](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-austin-chronicle) noted \"Thirty years after first collaborating on the Talking Heads, these two don't have to mine the past since there's nothing that remarkable about Everything.\"\nFrancis Jones summed up his review for [Hot Press](https://bliptext.com/articles/hot-press) by concluding \"No boundaries were harmed in its making but ETHWHT is an album of unquestionably great songs\" and Louise Gray of [New Internationalist](https://bliptext.com/articles/new-internationalist) declared that, \"it's not got the edgy, funky bricolage that characterized the earlier album and nor does it seek that.\"\nAt the same time, other reviewers have found the break with the experimental nature of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts to be positive.\n[Jim DeRogatis](https://bliptext.com/articles/jim-derogatis) from the [Chicago Sun-Times](https://bliptext.com/articles/chicago-sun-times) observed:\nReviews have emphasized the contrast between optimism and foreboding on the album, as well as the struggle of humanity against technology.\nIn addition, several reviewers have noted parallels between this album and Byrne's Big Love: Hymnal, particularly their common spiritual themes and atmospheric moods.\n[Resident Advisor](https://bliptext.com/articles/resident-advisor)'s review also notes the shift in Eno's recordings toward more gospel vocals.\nSteve Matteo of [Crawdaddy!](https://bliptext.com/articles/crawdaddy) wrote that Eno's production dominates the album, whereas [Filter](https://bliptext.com/articles/filter-magazine)'s Ken Scrudato considers the album primarily a David Byrne venture.\n[Consequence of Sound](https://bliptext.com/articles/consequence-of-sound)'s review notes continuity between this album and Byrne's 2004 release [Grown Backwards](https://bliptext.com/articles/grown-backwards), while [The Village Voice](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-village-voice) has declared this album \"more expansive and adventurous\" than anything else Byrne has released in decades and [Greg Kot](https://bliptext.com/articles/greg-kot) of [The Chicago Tribune](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-chicago-tribune) wrote that the album features \"one of the strongest vocal performances of Byrne's career.\"\n\n## Awards\nThe album was nominated for three [Grammy Awards](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award)—[Best Alternative Music Album](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award-for-best-alternative-music-album), [Best Recording Package](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award-for-best-recording-package), and [Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package](https://bliptext.com/articles/grammy-award-for-best-boxed-or-special-limited-edition-package)—on December 2, 2008.\nOn February 8, 2009, designer Stefan Sagmeister won the award for Best Recording Package at the [51st Annual Grammy Awards](https://bliptext.com/articles/51st-annual-grammy-awards).\nThe deluxe edition packaging was given a bronze medal by the [Art Directors Club of New York](https://bliptext.com/articles/art-directors-club-of-new-york).\nThe album was nominated for a [Technical Excellence & Creativity Award](https://bliptext.com/articles/tec-awards) in the Record Production/Album category.\nSeveral year-end lists included the album amongst the best releases of 2008:\nDeRogatis' and Kot's reviews were featured on [Sound Opinions](https://bliptext.com/articles/sound-opinions) and the album was also placed on two individual writers' lists for No Ripcord's best of the year.\nTwo contributors to [No Depression](https://bliptext.com/articles/no-depression-magazine) included the album on their best-of lists for 2008.\n[The A.V. Club](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-a-v-club) commissioned celebrities to give their picks for album of the year and [Tim Heidecker](https://bliptext.com/articles/tim-heidecker) chose this album, describing it as \"the most interesting and listenable pop record of the year, in my book.\"\n[The Fader](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-fader)'s 2008 year in review named this one of the \"Top Twelve Albums That We Thought Would Have a Bigger Impact On Our Lives\", but later declared the album \"career-defining.\"\nThe publication dedicated their annual icon issue to Byrne in 2009 in part due to the success of this album.\nSeveral songs from this album appeared on [The Village Voice](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-village-voice)'s [Pazz & Jop](https://bliptext.com/articles/pazz-jop) singles poll for 2008—\"Strange Overtones\" came in at 60, \"Life Is Long\" placed 337, \"My Big Nurse\" was 350, \"Everything That Happens\" ended up at 748, and \"I Feel My Stuff\" reached 942.\nIn addition, a vote was cast for \"Strange Undertones\".\n\n## Sales figures and chart performance\nAlthough the artists have not released sales figures, they have indicated that the album was purchased across the globe during the first 24 hours it was available and that the servers hosting the album delivered \"several [terabytes](https://bliptext.com/articles/terabyte)\" by September 6.\nA report in late December asserted that they had sold \"nearly 20,000 downloads.\"\nIn March 2009, Ian C. Rogers of [Topspin Media](https://bliptext.com/articles/topspin-media) explained that 20 percent of those who listened to the album streaming chose to purchase it and 30 percent of them included a physical copy of the CD; trends that would hold through September of that year.\nBy October 2008, Byrne explained that they had recouped their losses on the album and that sales had \"paid back the recording costs and costs for building the Web site.\"\nHe would later explain that this business model worked well for established acts as well as smaller bands, due to minimal production and distribution costs.\nTheir business model also allowed them to self-release and plan a tour immediately after finishing the music production, rather than wait months for record label advancement.\nThe album did not chart until it was physically released—a development which surprised Byrne.\nIn the first week of December, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today reached the top spot on the [College Music Journal](https://bliptext.com/articles/college-music-journal) AAA charts and third on the CMJ Radio 200.\nThe album entered the Billboard 200 for the week of January 17, 2009, debuting at 182 with 4,008 copies sold.\nIt peaked the following week at 174 before dropping off the charts.\nIt was on the [Independent Albums](https://bliptext.com/articles/independent-albums) chart for 10 weeks, reaching 18.\nByrne's 2012 book [How Music Works](https://bliptext.com/articles/how-music-works) gives a more thorough breakdown of the album's sales and distribution.\nBy the time of publication, he claims to have sold 160,000 copies of the album, making a little over $300,000 in sales:\n\"The $59,850 cost of making this record was only part of what it cost to prepare it for market. All told, the total costs to self-release the album were $315,000—building the website, paying for servers, design fees, promotion, manufacturing, etc. That's a lot more than any indie band could ever afford. We wound up generating $964,000 in total income. So minus the $315,000 in expenses, that left us with $649,000, 50 percent of which went to Eno, leaving me with $324,500. Since we were the record company, we paid our own mechanicals out of our profit.\nI was elated.\nHere, finally, was the future.\nI made $324,500 on this 'self-distributed' record, compared to the $58,000 I made on the standard royalty-deal record Grown Backwards—and the two sold nearly the same number of copies: 140,000 for Grown Backwards, and 160,000 for Everything That Happens.\nWow, the writing is on the wall here!\nWell, that enthusiasm might be justified if you can afford the $315,000 that we paid to assemble the apparatus needed to make, sell, and market a record.\n(It should be pointed out that some of those costs were start-up, learning-as-you go costs. Presumably they wouldn't be as high down the road, as the infrastructure has been built.)\"\n\n# Promotion\nSongs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour performers.jpg–Baker Hall in [Bethlehem, Pennsylvania](https://bliptext.com/articles/bethlehem-pennsylvania). (Left to right):\nBack: [Mauro Refosco](https://bliptext.com/articles/mauro-refosco) ([percussion](https://bliptext.com/articles/percussion-instrument)), [Graham Hawthorne](https://bliptext.com/articles/graham-hawthorne) ([drums](https://bliptext.com/articles/drum-kit)), and [Mark De Gli Antoni](https://bliptext.com/articles/mark-de-gli-antoni) ([keyboards](https://bliptext.com/articles/keyboard-instrument))\nMiddle: [Kaïssa](https://bliptext.com/articles/ka-ssa) ([background vocals](https://bliptext.com/articles/backing-vocalist)), [Redray Frazier](https://bliptext.com/articles/redray-frazier) ([background vocals](https://bliptext.com/articles/backing-vocalist)), Jenni Muldaur ([background vocals](https://bliptext.com/articles/backing-vocalist)), and [Paul Frazier](https://bliptext.com/articles/paul-frazier) ([bass guitar](https://bliptext.com/articles/bass-guitar))\nFront: [Steven Reker](https://bliptext.com/articles/steven-reker) ([dancing](https://bliptext.com/articles/dance)), Byrne ([vocals](https://bliptext.com/articles/singing) and [guitar](https://bliptext.com/articles/guitar)), [Natalie Kuhn](https://bliptext.com/articles/natalie-kuhn) ([dancing](https://bliptext.com/articles/dance)), and [Lily Baldwin](https://bliptext.com/articles/lily-baldwin) ([dancing](https://bliptext.com/articles/dance))]]\nWhile Byrne and Eno did a few interviews for the album and subsequent tour, the two attempted to market the album via word-of-mouth and Internet hype rather than a traditional marketing scheme.\nEno was convinced in part because of his own preferences for digital music from the [iTunes Store](https://bliptext.com/articles/itunes-store) rather than CDs as well as the success of [Radiohead](https://bliptext.com/articles/radiohead)'s 2007 album [In Rainbows](https://bliptext.com/articles/in-rainbows) and the self-promotional strategies of [Nine Inch Nails](https://bliptext.com/articles/nine-inch-nails) for the albums [Year Zero](https://bliptext.com/articles/year-zero-album), [Ghosts I–IV](https://bliptext.com/articles/ghosts-i-iv), and [The Slip](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-slip-album).\nByrne was also impressed by Radiohead's release strategy as a means of valuing music.\nThe duo carefully avoided [Internet leaks](https://bliptext.com/articles/music-leak) by not giving out promotional copies of the album to journalists, but Byrne did preview the song \"One Fine Day\" prior to the release by performing it with a choir of senior citizens and Eno invited Mark Coles for the [BBC World Service](https://bliptext.com/articles/bbc-world-service) program The Beat to his home to listen to the songs on Eno's laptop.\nIn 2017, Byrne revealed that he and Eno had collaborated again on Byrne's next solo album.\nIn 2010, several of the songs from this album—\"Home\", \"I Feel My Stuff\", \"Life Is Long\", \"My Big Nurse\", and \"Strange Overtones\"—were included in the Todo Mundo [soundtrack album](https://bliptext.com/articles/wall-street-money-never-sleeps-soundtrack) to the film [Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps](https://bliptext.com/articles/wall-street-money-never-sleeps) along with other David Byrne songs.\n\n## Marketing\nByrne and Eno have both expressed their displeasure with the [music industry](https://bliptext.com/articles/music-industry) and traditional models of marketing music, with Eno calling the music business an \"exciting mess\" and saying:\nByrne has written for [Wired](https://bliptext.com/articles/wired-magazine), outlining the relative merits of different distribution models with this one reflecting his \"self-distribution model\" in which \"the artist stands to receive the largest percentage of income from sales per unit—sales of anything. A larger percentage of fewer sales, most likely, but not always. Artists doing it for themselves can actually make more money than the massive pop star, even though the sales numbers may seem minuscule by comparison.\"\nThe motivation for creating and marketing this album directly came in part from the very article Byrne wrote as well as Eno's belief that music fans want more than just the music on an album and prefer collectible deluxe editions as well as the live performances that promote them.\nA month after releasing the album, Byrne was skeptical of market saturation claiming \"I sense that a lot of people don't know we have a record out\" and hoped to counterbalance that ignorance with his tour.\nHe also described the digital music market as \"so infinite [that] it's easy for music to get lost out there\" and has noted that this business model would not work for performers who are not already established.\nThe duo enlisted a music marketing [startup company](https://bliptext.com/articles/startup-company)—Topspin Media —to design their site, delivery options for the digital music, and promotional [web widgets](https://bliptext.com/articles/web-widget).\nLike the entirety of the recording process, the marketing was self-financed and controlled by the artists, with Topspin taking a portion of the money made from digital sales.\nThis allowed the artists to control creative aspects of producing music as well as the [overhead costs](https://bliptext.com/articles/overhead-business) associated with marketing an album.\nThe company used [viral marketing](https://bliptext.com/articles/viral-marketing) techniques to collect potential customers' e-mail addresses and encourage them to post the album streaming on their [blogs](https://bliptext.com/articles/blog).\nBy early November, the collected e-mail addresses amounted to 37 percent of the album sales.\nTopspin has also created a [Flickr](https://bliptext.com/articles/flickr) pool encouraging users to upload [screenshots](https://bliptext.com/articles/screenshot) of the widget posted to web sites.\nNo advertisements were taken out for the album.\nByrne and Eno were praised by [Fast Company](https://bliptext.com/articles/fast-company-magazine) for their innovative use of Internet marketing and distribution for this album as well as several other releases and the promotion of this album has been lauded as a way of undermining [copyright infringement](https://bliptext.com/articles/copyright-infringement).\nKey to their success was the software that Topspin Media developed and later commercially released as a bundle for other companies and artists to use, explaining that \"In the first eight weeks following the launch of the David Byrne and Brian Eno self-released record, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, the Topspin platform helped us generate [Direct-to-Fan](https://bliptext.com/articles/direct-to-fan) revenue at the very least the equivalent to what we would have expected from a label advance,\" that went directly to Byrne and Eno.\nBased in part on the success of marketing this album, representatives of Topspin were invited to teach a course on music marketing at [Berklee College of Music](https://bliptext.com/articles/berklee-college-of-music) in September 2009 and Ian C. Rogers led a panel discussion at [South by Southwest](https://bliptext.com/articles/south-by-southwest) on options for independent music artists.\nThe album's multiple formats have been praised as a method of incentivizing buying physical copies of albums.\n\n## Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour\nByrne assembled a band to tour for the album, performing music throughout the latter half of 2008 and early 2009 across North America, Europe, and Australasia.\nHe hired more singers than he had on previous tours to reproduce the complex vocal harmonies of the album and was inspired to bring along dancers after seeing [Sufjan Stevens](https://bliptext.com/articles/sufjan-stevens) promote the album [Illinois](https://bliptext.com/articles/illinois-sufjan-stevens-album) as well as the Japanese films [Funky Forest](https://bliptext.com/articles/funky-forest) and [The Taste of Tea](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-taste-of-tea).\nByrne was initially uninvolved in the choreography, but made more suggestions as the tour went on and after he saw a live performance by [Deerhoof](https://bliptext.com/articles/deerhoof) that incorporated dancing with instruments.\nHe began booking tour dates before the album was completed and continued writing his book The Bicycle Diaries throughout the tour.\nIn planning the set lists for the tour, Byrne initially considered only promoting this album but decided to include songs from his previous collaborations with Eno as well, including the Talking Heads albums [More Songs About Buildings and Food](https://bliptext.com/articles/more-songs-about-buildings-and-food), [Fear of Music](https://bliptext.com/articles/fear-of-music), and [Remain in Light](https://bliptext.com/articles/remain-in-light) and Byrne's [The Catherine Wheel](https://bliptext.com/articles/the-catherine-wheel-album) soundtrack.\nBy playing music from all of their collaborations, Byrne hoped to \"draw a line linking this new material with what we did 30 years ago\" with the goal of clarifying the connection between all of the duo's previous work.\nIn reviewing their past music, he found that \"[t]here might be more continuity than I imagined, which I hope is going to work in my favor.\"\nAlthough Eno was invited to participate and early reports indicated that he would, Eno ultimately chose not to tour with Byrne, letting Byrne decide how to present this music live.\n# [Eno was rumored to participate in the Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour, but only appeared onstage once for a brief cameo. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Brian///Eno///Long///Now///Foundation///2006.jpg]\n\n## Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour\nOn May 11, 2009, the live EP [Everything That Happens Will Happen on This Tour – David Byrne on Tour: Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/everything-that-happens-will-happen-on-this-tour-david-byrne-on-tour-songs-of-david-byrne-and-brian-eno) was released digitally through Todo Mundo to benefit [Amnesty International](https://bliptext.com/articles/amnesty-international).\nThe album features four songs recorded in December 2008 on the tour.\nTopspin Media offered the same digital download options to purchase the EP and the company created a second [embeddable](https://bliptext.com/articles/embedded-system) [media player](https://bliptext.com/articles/media-player-application-software) to promote the album.\n\n## Ride, Rise, Roar\nOn February 11, 2010, it was announced that a documentary film entitled Ride, Rise, Roar chronicling the tour would be released to the 2010 [film festival](https://bliptext.com/articles/film-festival) circuit.\nThe debut was at South by Southwest on March 15, 2010, where it was screened in all three media categories—film, interactive, and music.\nByrne attended some British screenings for question and answer sessions.\nRide, Rise, Roar is the feature-length directorial debut by Hillman Curtis —Byrne approached him after his satisfaction with the short film that accompanies the deluxe edition of Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.\nThe documentary includes concert footage, film of the planning and rehearsals for the tour, and exclusive interviews with Byrne, Eno, and the supporting musicians and dancers.\nCurtis was initially contacted to document the tour with no clear objective for the film and decided to focus on the collaboration between Byrne and his tour mates as well as the unique challenge of combining [popular music](https://bliptext.com/articles/popular-music) with [modern dance](https://bliptext.com/articles/modern-dance).\n# [The performances on the Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour included matching costumes, such as the white jumpsuit and tutu that Byrne is wearing here. | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/DavidByrneFestivalHall2009.jpg]\n\n# Track listing\nAll lyrics written by [David Byrne](https://bliptext.com/articles/david-byrne); all music by Byrne (vocals) and [Brian Eno](https://bliptext.com/articles/brian-eno) (instrumentation), except \"Strange Overtones\" co-written by [Leo Abrahams](https://bliptext.com/articles/leo-abrahams).\n**Japanese release**\n**Deluxe Edition bonus tracks**\n\n# Personnel\n**\"Home\"**\n**\"My Big Nurse\"**\n**\"I Feel My Stuff\"**\n**\"Everything That Happens\"**\n**\"Life Is Long\"**\n**\"The River\"**\n**\"Strange Overtones\"**\n**\"Wanted for Life\"**\n**\"One Fine Day\"**\n**\"Poor Boy\"**\n**\"The Lighthouse\"**\n**\"Never Thought\"**\n**\"Walking Along the River\"**\n**\"The Eyes\"**\n**\"The Painting\"**\n**Other**","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

History