THERE’S A LEAK IN THE PIPES!
FUTURE ISLANDS | IN EVENING AIR.
(via City Paper)
Baltimore: city of high crime and some mad as a hatter musicians. Future Islands ain’t no renegade in this regard, not to say that they add to the crime rate (maybe), but they definitely help give the Baltimore music scene the reputation that it has. Future Islands is inhabited by the likes of Samuel Herring (Vocals), William Cashion (Bass), and J. Gerrit Welmers (Synth), all meeting at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. After their release of Little Advances in 2006 they moved up to good ole’ B-More where they sunk right in with the rambunctious crowd at Wham City, helmed by the maniacal wizard, himself, Dan Deacon. Most recently, Future Islands released an LP, Wave Like Home, however there’s been a leak in the music pipeline! In Evening Air, poised to be released in April, has broken out of its cage.
In Evening Air, their second full-length, certainly builds on to their repute. The sounds is that same foot-tapping, head-nodding, body-high inducing groove that they’ve always produced. Herring’s whiskey-steeped, gritty vocals brings a nice contrast to the smooth, hovering sweeps of synth (see: “An Apology”). In Evening Air is a bit more eclectic than their freshman release, Little Advances. “Vireo’s Eye”, for instance, is pretty progressive in form, it trickles in slowly, but by the end you’re waist deep in a pretty sick baseline and bouncing synth. Even with the very first track, “Walking Through That Door”, as soon as that beat passes through your ears your body is pretty much required to move along with it; you really don’t have a choice.
This album is drenched with a lot of emotion and quite elegantly crafted, though subtly speaking. It’s not to say that it’s over the top or too refined, there’s just a lot more meat on the bone.
TRACKLISTING.
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”
Rick
