Danananananaykroyd may as well name themselves Sosososososogoodkroyd, because they are. With two hyperactive frontmen, a 'wall of hugs' and (this one time when I saw them) wizard hats and hoots of: "anything but Slytherin!", they're almost certainly the best live band in the country at the moment (indisputably, at least, unless you're reading this at a point when Les Savy Fav or HEALTH are in the country), and they're pretty amazing on record too.It took me a while, really, I suppose, to see it when I first heard what they'd recorded, in the form of the Sissy Hits EP last year. I really like Sissy Hits, but it took me five or six listens to get just why it was quite so special, and the best I could say to articulate this- not having seen them live at this point either (or I imagine it would have come far more easily)- was that they sounded like two bands colliding with each other. Which I think is actually quite a good way of describing Dananananaykroyd, so I'm going to go with it. Because, you know, they manage to jangle and rock pretty heavily at the same time, so they sound kind of like a twee pop band colliding with a post-hardcore band. Plus, like, HUMOUR and shit. But mostly I just think they have at least one (dunno which one... but I'm going to go out on a limb and say... David Roy?) really great guitarist. (and I mean, like, Alden Penner, Stephen Malkmus great here - really great)But anyway, Sissy Hits was good, but Hey Everyone! is better. Hey Everyone! is better firstly because it is better-produced. It is produced by that guy Machine who produced the Johnny Foreigner album, and obviously did an amazing job on that (because it is amazing) but I think if anything he has done an even better job on this (I went to a school where they teach us to write everything well by using the word 'better' at every opportunity). This is firstly because producing a band like Dananananaykroyd is harder anyway, as there are more of them (stands to reason doesn't it), and secondly because Danananananaykroyd sound so much better on this record comparative to their previous recorded output than JoFo did comparative to theirs. Johnny Foreigner would have been ok with just recording stuff in their basement or their friend's studio or something- they're that sort of band, but Dananananaykroyd could easily have produced a record here that was just a flyer for their live shows - the fact they have produced something instantly amazing in its own right is a testament to the fact you shouldn't dismiss all men who go around calling themselves 'Machine' immediately as cunts. (who knew?!?!)The second reason that Hey Everyone! is better than Sissy Hits is because it has better songs on it. This may surprise a lot of people, because many of the songs on Hey Everyone! are the *same* songs as on Sissy Hits- 'The Greater Than Symbol And The Hash', '1993', and 'Infinity Milk' all reappear, although 'Infinity Milk' is now a proper song and not just 50 seconds of introduction. 'The Greater Than Symbol...' and '1993', to be honest, seem like kind of odd choices to me as the ones to make a comeback - I was always a much bigger fan of 'Cleaning Each Other' and 'British Knights', although maybe I just liked 'British Knights' for its underdog charm. Either way, the new versions here are heller better (yet more evidence of the apparent talent of this Machine guy, though obviously we should still be suspicious of his name). The general air of already-familiarity this record has, however, is furthered by the re-appearance of past singles 'Some Dresses' and 'Totally Bone', alongside 'Pink Sabbath' and 'Black Wax' - singles that have recently emerged. This is no bad thing, though. Might not seem like fresh blood now but come the far future new generations will be able to be blown away just like you were by the majesty of these tracks- particularly, it has to be said, first single 'Some Dresses', which is still their best song by some margin. And I'm not saying the rest of their songs, like, pale or anything here - I'm just saying that 'Some Dresses' is just *that* good. "Yeah! Can you smell it in the air?" Yeah!So perhaps for some people the only truly new songs will be the opening title track (a minute and a half-long instrumental), 'Watch This', the minute-long 'One Chance', 'Hey James'- which might have been something to do with past b-side 'Hey Giles' but doesn't seem to be- and closer 'Song One Puzzle'. But, a) 'Watch This' and 'Hey James' are both pretty incredible (and also 'Watch This' opens with calls of "Dananananaykroyd! Danananaykroyd!" a bit like those "GBV!"s from the start of 'Propeller', so obviously we already know that all the best bands start their albums by shouting their own name), and b) To return to a previous point, who in the far future will care? Really, the only possible worry is that maybe Dananananaykroyd don't have enough fresh ideas in them to build on this for the second album... but with six members and the sort of wonderful energy they all seem to exude, I find that somewhat hard to believe. I mean, just check what they left off - 'Chrome Rainbow', for starters, and those songs I already mentioned from Sissy Hits. And even if they didn't, at least we still have this. 90%Dananananaykroyd on MySpace