Everything Wrong Is Imaginary features some great guitar-infused elements of Wire and pop-era Brian Eno while still sounding like a genuine Lilys record. All of Kurt Heasley's past recordings and singles pay homage to some band or era (MBV, Pink Floyd, Kinks), this is not one of those records. The Lilys have completed quite a few albums that many fans regard as timeless classics (Eccsame The Photon Band & Better Can't Make Your Life Better), but this is the first full-length where the Lilys sound like they're actually maturing into their own band, taking cues from themselves instead of other albums or artists. It's brighter, cleaner and emphasizes vocals way more than you'd expect, maybe Kurt's got something he really wants to tell us?
Highlights on the album are the straight-ahead bangers like "A Diana's Diana" and "The Moon Over San Juan". Many of the songs are fairly repetitive and simple while Kurt Heasley explores the space with keyboards and more guitar effects that will bring to mind the crunch of In The Presence Of Nothing. "Everything Wrong Is Imaginary" is the danciest track on the record. It's a tribute to 80's school dances in the vein of Haircut 100's "Love Plus One". The album has some shoegazey elements with the dense, broken-up wash on "Knocked On The Fortune Teller's Door". What really got stuck in my head is the mellow "Scott Free". It's basically an acoustic serenade with big pianos that I wish would have come in earlier and stayed for the entire song.
Every Lilys record is a departure from the last, but on this disc I can see Kurt Heasley veering a bit toward the golden age of his Slumberland Records days with the heavier guitars and busy chord progressions. For many years and releases I believed Kurt Heasley didn't really know who he was or what he wanted from music. He always continued to make tribute-style albums that were reliable, strong, and catchy. In my opinion this has to be his honest and most personal sounding material to date. Recommended.