It’s late at night and you can’t sleep. You toss and turn, stare at the ceiling, sigh and close your eyes. You’re uneasy again and you don’t know why. As a feeling of malaise and sadness fills you, there’s another sensation within you, struggling to fight off the encroaching darkness. A feeling of hope. This is what the music of Everything Is Fine is all about. The brainchild of Philadelphia artist Marc Manning, Everything Is Fine is the musical equivalent of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Though this release is barely 30 minutes long, throughout the disc’s seven tracks Manning and musical cohorts Geoff Mattis and Bill Moriarty take listeners on a journey into the dark side of the human condition, occasionally punching holes in the walls of consciousness to allow the light in. The album’s best track is the soaring opener “Holy Water” (a lo-fi version appeared on last year’s equally shattering “The Telephone Is Breathing), which paints a portrait of impending doom—“This is it”, Manning hauntingly howls, bracing for some unnamed horror. On “Safe Inside”, the protagonist unsuccessfully dons a brave face, while being tormented by growing enemies “I’m not scared but I think I’ll hide”, Manning sings, sounding not entirely unlike that Sultan of Sorrow – Morrissey. It’s the type of song that hearkens back to the bruised innocence of childhood fears. With this release, Everything Is Fine musically brings home the new reality, longing for safety and connection while reluctantly accepting an increasingly dangerous world.