Everything Everything played to a beyond sold out crowd on Thursday, with fans who hadn’t managed to get a ticket lined up outside the O2 in hopes of anyone having a spare ticket to sell.

The Manchester-based band opened with the majestic ‘Undrowned’ from new album ‘Arc’. The song showcases their eclectic style nicely with its haunting opening that then gives way to something that’s definitely more poppy, but still quite complex. The darkness, cynicism and the eerie sound itself isn’t a million miles away from Radiohead.

The crowd was 100 per cent with them from the start, and full of obviously dedicated fans singing along (and getting the lyrics right!).

The gathered masses, not just the front five or six rows, but a good two-thirds of the audience, also enjoyed a solid dance to styles ranging from the R&B with a hint of reggae (and zany lyrics) found in ‘Kemosabe’ to the quirky, crowd-pleasing ‘Armourland’.

The band placed their new single, ‘Duet’, in the centre of the set. It’s full of luscious harmonies, and, as the name suggests, the combination of voices, with Jeremy Pritchard mellowing out lead singer Jonathan Higgs’ falsetto, adds charm and depth.

The band was technically slick with a minimum of banter in the first half.

While still hardly chatty, they spoke a bit more in the second half, starting with thanking their producer, David Kosten, which resulted in a roar of applause from the fans. They also dedicated ‘Photoshop Handsome’ from their first album, ‘Man Alive’, to the Valentine’s Day gathering in a semi-ironic twist. The band ended with ‘Cough Cough’ from ‘Arc’, which has just been released as an EP in the US. With its combination of drums and synth, and its vocals that start as part of the beat, but then evolve into a collection of vocal melodies, it’s easy to see why this is clear crowd favourite. The inevitable encore of a band this popular included four songs ranging from ‘MY KZ UR BF’ (my keys your boyfriend) about a self-absorbed R&B womaniser caught in an air raid, to the less fanciful ‘Radiant’ with its bleak, "I can make a difference so easy but I don’t", message and last line. The final song of the gig, which is also the final song on ‘Arc’, offered a glimmer of hope with ‘Don’t Try’, encouraging people to speak up and leaving the crowd exuberant. Everything Everything are a band who divide opinion. Easy listening they are not, and if you want songs that have a linear tune building to a big chorus in a predictable and conventional way, then look elsewhere. The songs are musically ambitious with a lot going on. Both the melodies and lyrics are packed with ideas, often giving way to each other in jumbled succession.

It’s a challenging listen, but I think, and the fans certainly agree, that the experimental mix of powerful ballads and brilliant, mad singles makes it an investment in listening that pays off.