It's no secret that I happen to love Future Islands, and it was so great to see the band getting a lot of attention from their last album Singles, an album I thought deserved every bit of praise it could get. However, my ultimate question concerning the band was 'okay, now what?' They had already shown that they could get noticed playing relatively the same kind of music they always have, but now that they'd achieved that recognition, would they follow it up with a more ambitious record? And after having given this LP a good dozen or so listens since it dropped on the 7th, I can safely say that while the band definitely isn't going in a new direction on The Far Field, they have in my opinion honed their sound to the point of mastery. And luckily, the production seems to have finally caught up with their talent, seeing as how this album sounds absolutely amazing from start to finish. Plus, the band have finally introduced live drums to their repertoire which really fills out the instrumentals in a big way.
Case and point, the track "Ran", an absolutely monstrous track rivaled only by their breakthrough single "Seasons (Waiting On You)" from their previous album. This track not only features a full, beautiful sounding instrumental that is sure to get the body moving, but the lyrics and vocal performance are as poetic and awe-inspiring as they've always been. Sam Herring is and probably always will be the single most important thing about the Future Islands, his vocals never fail to impress and on this album, he manages to expand his range in subtle ways, like how he has improved his lighter, more clean vocals and his lower, more gravelly vocals have been smoothed out. Also, their is actually a fair bit of double tracked vocals here, mostly done by Sam himself, and there's even a bonafide duet with Debbie Harry of Blondie, who is sounding a lot better here than she has on recent Blondie singles, which is great to hear, because I happen to love Blondie quite a lot.
However, if I'm being totally honest, I can't help but feel a little disappointed with how safe this record feels, sure, the last album didn't break down any huge walls or anything, but up until that point, the band had never sounded so big and their pop influences had never shined so bright, and while The Far Field is in many ways a stronger all around record, and perhaps I even enjoy it more than Singles, I can't help but feel they would of had a record of the year contender if they'd ventured a bit farther outside their comfort zone with this record.
Still, I can't help but love tracks like "Cave", "Through The Roses", "Shadows" and the track "Northstar" which is easily the band's most peppy track, almost a spiritual successor to the track "Doves". And the lyrics on this album go in a lot of really poetic and contemplative places, where Sam really reflects on the nature of life, love, and the human condition, all the while being backed up by instrumentation that invites the listener to abandon all emotional pretense and just give in; and that's something very few bands do as well as Future Islands.
8.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment