The Far Field
Bolstered by a notoriously great *Letterman* performance, Future Islands’ 2014 effort *Singles* was a breakthrough for the synth-pop romantics. *The Far Field* dives further into their sound, combining the expressiveness of soul with the leanness of post-punk and New Wave, underlined by immediate songwriting and the strong, vulnerable voice of Samuel T. Herring. “I don’t believe anymore/I won’t grieve anymore,” he croons on the standout “Cave.” “’Cause what was gold/Is gone and cold.”
Five albums in, Future Islands are beyond reinvention. Instead, they tap into the emotion that runs deep under their synth-pop, and the results are more cathartic and devastating than ever.
It’s not entirely accurate to say that retro-technopop band Future Islands owes its success to one memorable appearance on The Late Show With David Letterman; but it’s true that everything that happened onstage during that four minutes at the Ed Sullivan Theater on March 3, 2014, illustrates how a band that toiled in…
Baltimore three-piece return in terrific shape, with the most elegant, insightful and timely work of their career so far.
After years of toil, the Baltimore trio exploded when their Letterman appearance went viral, their fifth album keeps things on the right track
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Future Islands' 2014 album, Singles, was the moment when it all came together for them, musically, commercially, artistically.
The Far Field is packed with the same eerie synth backdrops and rolling basslines that make Future Islands' sound instantly recognisable.
When Future Islands released their fourth album, 2014's Singles, the band had just nailed a Late Show appearance from which frontman Samuel...
No one in recent memory has crushed a late-night TV performance the way Future Islands did with "Seasons (Waiting on You)" on The Late Show with David Letterman in 2014.
In one fell swoop Future Islands went from a powerful underground force to a bona fide viral success. Invited to perform on The Late Show with David
After their breakthrough success with 'Singles', the Baltimore trio might be the only band ever to have to write a difficult fifth LP.
The band switches things up on the album, but it feels more like tweaking a formula than breaking new ground.
'The Far Field' by Future Islands, album review by Owen Maxwell. The full-length comes out April 7th via 4AD. Future Islands, play March 24th in Glasgow, UK
Something of a retreat, a withdrawal into the melancholy of the bedrock of the group’s howled longing.
Baltimore trio back with their post-breakthrough album. Album review by Russ Coffey