Wave Like Home

Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring is an intriguing front man, using both a guttural croon and fevered bellowing to exorcise his demons, his brawny vocals tumbling like a moshpit surfer atop a seething mass of youthful testosterone. Don’t be misled by the frenzied “Old Friend,” where clattering percussion chases after a runway synth line but Herring’s voice is — for the most part — strangely composed and faintly Brit-tinged; on the volatile “Flicker and Flutter,” the gurgling carnival of keyboards gives way to the muscular, Tom Waits-ish croak Herring favors on most tracks. Occasionally, as on “Seize a Shark,” Gerrit Welmer’s rabid keyboards and William Cashion’s New Order-flavored bass lines (beautifully consistent throughout) nearly steal the show from Herring’s impassioned yowling. The thrill of an Islands’ live set can be conjured by imagining Tenacious D’s Jack Black fronting an ultra-cool post-punk trio, Black’s (Herring’s) wild gesticulating and physical theatrics punctuating every high and low of FI’s exhilarating electro-pop. Don’t miss the heartachingly lovely “Beach Foam,” setting the bar for a new kind of ballad.