Future Islands - On The Water

(nuxx)

Don't really know much about this band but that Letterman performance has got me interested. I could watch it all day.

I just streamed the album which was nice enough but a little samey. I think I'd enjoy it more if I'd watched him dancing for the entire 45 minutes. The sound of the album really reminded me of Twin Shadow which is no bad thing.

ha!! i thought that bit sounded familiar!

I applaud Matt DC's use of the word "wussy" as a +

I really like this album a lot, I know that parts of it are basically The Killers (in the Springsteen tribute years) with unusual vocal stylings but I can live that.

Cannot stop watching that Letterman performance.

Really digging the album based on the stream - dunno if it's better than On the Water (which was probably my favorite of 2011) but it's up there. Agreed that it's a little samey but that's not necessarily a bad thing. There is a bit towards the end of the album that really took me by surprise. Especially if you've got the volume cranked.

On my basis of my first listen this tended towards the plodding, although I do like the single.

Cannot stop watching that Letterman performance.

― Kitchen Person

reminds me a lot of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivDRJuBszVw

Was surprised by how close to mono the single is mixed. It is pretty dead center.

Curious to know who mixed it. Several mixers I know have been championing a mono (or almost mono) approach recently

agreed that this is a bit samey at first but I encourage you all to give "A Song for Our Grandfathers" another listen, it's so incredibly massive, definitely my early favorite right now

my profile of the band is up: http://wonderingsound.com/feature/future-islands-interview/

nice work

This is way too samey IMO, they use a very similar sound palette throughout and they aren't distinctive enough songwriters to get past that.

Yeah, that Letterman performance. I'm kind of into that song now.

But agreed with the album, I don't think it's bad, but the production could be a lot more interesting.

Agree with what people have said about the album. It's nice enough but doesn't blow me away. Having said that I just have to think about the Letterman performance then I want to run to a record shop, buy all their albums and then get the band name tattooed on my arm. I can't remember the last time I wanted to like an album so much more than I actually do.

How does Singles compare to their previous albums? Haven't checked those out yet.

I think there's decent variety in the previous albums if you want to check them out. I love the "Tomorrow" EP. I think the vocal performance on the title track is great in the way the Letterman performance is great. The extended version of "Tin Man" on "In the Fall" is great and also has a different feel. They also put out an acoustic EP called "Undressed".

"balance" at the top of the thread still their best imo

yeah, spotify agrees with you. my brother is seeing them at a pretty small venue in Grand Rapids tomorrow. I am pretty jealous.

btw gr8 writeup, sd. all killer + no filler.

they've really paid their dues haven't they? been gigging hard for years. good to see them finally getting some payback.

thx!

yeah that was an excellent profile

Four or five years ago, my old band played a festival with Future Islands at a small festival in France. We'd just gotten to the venue and were kind of snacking, decompressing from the drive, etc., in the green room, when Sam popped his head in. He was carrying a large laundry sack.

He really sweetly and enthusiastically introduced himself to all of us and said something to the effect of:

"Hey, I'm Sam. It is SO nice to meet all of you. Anyway, I was going to try and find a place to do some laundry... would any of you like me to grab your laundry and bring it back to you all clean?"

We were flabbergasted. It was the nicest gesture EVER. I still think of it often.

:D

^srsly every anecdote i've heard about dude (including mine upthread) makes him sound like the best guy ever

some dude i liked your point about how the letterman video is way more popular than the nicely-shot, but fairly typical video. so many director's reel-style videos out there and they're so unmoving.

i like the video a lot but agree it doesn't play to the band's strengths.

i was actually a little disoriented seeing them live in late 2012, having only seen the video for "balance" (no shots of the band) and only one press photo briefly. i don't know what i was expecting their appearance/performance to look and feel like but it wasn't that.

i don't get what was special about that letterman performance? looked like overwrought karaoke. didn't like the song or especially his terrible voice either but even so the hype around the performance seems weird

Aside from the enormous dancing, the weirdness is in the hardcore growling he hints at on the beginnings of his phrases, then the moment of real hardcore growl at the end

the dancing is just amateur incompetence à la every dorky white dude at a wedding ever. s0 authentic

i did not think the moments of growling were that weird or confrontational or compelling but maybe growing up on tori amos just set the bar high in terms of what i expect performances of on-stage catharsis to be like

Would love to go to a wedding where someone dances like that.

what makes the performance special is that it's a moment of complete self-possession, which is not really something we get much of these days, especially on nat'l tv.

the dancing is just amateur incompetence à la every dorky white dude at a wedding ever. s0 authentic

uhhh I have never seen anyone dance like that in real life, ever (not even white people!)

Yeah, for me the weird thing is precisely that it comes across like overwrought karaoke, yet knowingly performed as sincere and earnest. Sort of a mockery of prog-pop chart music of the 80s (I'm thinking of Genesis/Peter Gabriel/Phil Collins, maybe? Although I also hear a schmaltzy Tom Jones-seque vibe in that performance), but also played straight. The affective grunts, metal vocals and other stuff are sort of hints or punctures to its actually being something else.

If I'd make a criticism of it tho, I'd say it all ends up feeling more like pomo performance art, blank parody, which is possibly neither here nor there when it comes to pop music anyhow.

Actually, the reaching to the sky thing in the chorus reminded me a bit of Tenacious D for a second, but not enough to completely ruin it.

like, i can totally see why people find the letterman thing charming, why the growling impresses people who like growling more than i do, but when we get to "moment of complete self-possession" i kind of have to fart

i don't think it was remotely that interesting or out of the ordinary. you could take any given tv performance and talk about how "knowing" or "sincere" or "earnest" it was and it'd be as much projection and guesswork as any other. the line between "performed" and "real" is kinda meaningless when it comes to on-stage catharsis

oh the chest-beating made me roll my eyes

Sure. There's a sense of sympathetic embarrassment going on.

weird lex, i'd have thought you would've been all over the latest indie rock sensation!

It's true that the performance, while odd, is nowhere near as unusual as is being claimed in some quarters (especially that overexcitable Guardian piece).

we need to figure out EXACTLY how weird it is.

i don't think it was remotely that interesting or out of the ordinary. you could take any given tv performance and talk about how "knowing" or "sincere" or "earnest" it was and it'd be as much projection and guesswork as any other. the line between "performed" and "real" is kinda meaningless when it comes to on-stage catharsis

― lex pretend, Tuesday, March 25, 2014 10:37 AM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah those are not the words i would use, it's just a guy owning his moment and it's cool to watch.

i thought of barry from east enders doing "walking in memphis", but he's got a cool eddie munster / ernest borgnine thing going, and i enjoyed it, and it was infinitely better than the last not-weird "weird" thing that got hyped to high heaven when gobshite bradford cox "had a meltdown" (quite unremarkably jamming through an extended 80's pop cover, endlessly reported as if it were some kinda gg allin vs jj burnel incident, for no discernible reason)

Gonna leave this here without comment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMEBKZGHWCM

quantum leap

LOL

I'd be a huge fan if he exclusively rapped about Scott Bakula's guest role as Chuck's Dad on Chuck.