The Weight of Early Promise

Ten years ago, longtime power-pop maven Cal Everett headed into the studio to begin work on his dream project: A sprawling yet intimate double-album about life, love, and everything in between. Everett is the former frontman and bassist for 4 Out of 5 Doctors, the critically acclaimed, cult-adored power-pop act that spent the late 1970s and early 1980s touring and playing shows with such superstars as Hall and Oates, the Cars, The Clash and Cyndi Lauper. In the years since 4 Out of 5 Doctors’  breakup, Everett has worked on numerous musical projects, while also stockpiling dozens of finely crafted, high-energy tunes that chronicle the joys and heartaches of a decades-long artistic career. “It represents everything I’ve ever wanted to do on a record since I was 14,” Everett says. “I just hadn’t lived long enough to do it until now.” 

The result is Everett’s ambitious and long-awaited first solo effort, Weight of Early Promise (May 1, Single Bound Records), a stunning power-pop musical memoir recorded over the course of a decade—and an album that demands to be listened to in a single sitting. Everett wrote and arranged all 23 tracks, including the lead single “Teenager’s Belief,” a jaunty, piano-driven rocker about the folly of youth. Other highlights from Weight of Early Promise include the gorgeous lost-love ballad “Epilogue” and the wistful “I’ll Never Go to Africa”—a song originally written during Everett’s time with 4 Out of 5 Doctors, only to be completed more than forty years later. 

Together, the songs on Weight of Early Promise find the multi-talented Everett—who handles piano, keyboards, guitars, and bass on the record—looking back at his past with songs that will linger far into the future. It’s an unexpected late-career highlight for the singer’s fans, and a must-listen for fans of pristine power-pop acts like Jellyfish, Ben Folds Five, and the Raspberries, as well as melodic maestros like Paul McCartney, the Beach Boys and Emmit Rhodes. And while it may have taken decades to finish, Weight of Early Promise feels like it arrived right on time. “These songs span 40 years of my life, my relationships, my disappointment, my joyfulness,” Everett says. “They’re pretty raw, but they’re all very hummable because that’s what I do.”