Future Islands – In Evening Air

Description

Baltimore-based Future Islands put Dan Deacon producer Chester Endersby Gwazda at the helm again for their second full-length release. The Islands unique sound soul-rattling pulses of bass, unadorned, bone-smooth percussion, and keyboards possessed by both B-movie and modern rock hobgoblins sets them apart from the current pack of electro-pop artists (actually, theyve branded themselves a post-wave dance band). But frontman Samuel Herring is their real not-so-secret weapon, and his unnerving, over-the-top yowling puts FI a few fields left of the indie-pop center. Its a delicious pairing, Herrings gruff delivery of lines like We go alone at night/to miserys bed and Gerrit Welmers refreshingly muscular keyboard subduing William Cashions engorged bass lines, preventing them from billowing into chaos. Chiming steel- drum tones in Tin Man become a menace, a jittery twinkle amid layers of gritty, fuzzed-out bass and keyboards; Vireos Eye is the spawn of an 80s Cure song, with its glacial synths, simmering bass and snapping drum track. In Evening Air is a serious year-end list contender.

TRACKLIST
1 Walking Through That Door
2 Long Flight
3 Tin Man
4 An Apology
5 In Evening Air
6 Swept Inside
7 Inch of Dust
8 Vireo’s Eye
9 As I Fall