Future Islands - On The Water

how awesome is it at 1:48 when the mic picks up the sound of him beating his chest

very awesome. This art lord album is fun. Gives you a feel for the bands' growth.

ok i watched it and i am so happy about that performance

dude lost a lot of lbs and seems very excited about the possibilities of newfound bendiness

or maybe just the possibilities of a wide stage

strongly disagree—I am much more interested in a critic who writes "he emphasizes individual words, or parts of words, in a way that detracts from the melody and merely reiterates the sentiments already present in the lyrics" than one who settles for "he over-emotes"

― merciless to accomplish the truth in his intelligence (bernard snowy), Monday, 10 March 2014 18:27 (Yesterday) Permalink

You realize there is a beautiful bit of metonymy to that post

― continually topping myself (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 10 March 2014 18:31 (Yesterday) Permalink

(and this is the last time I wanna talk about anything on this thread besides how great Future Islands are)

... the ideal critic would be one who, if pressed, could expand the latter judgment into the former set of verifiable observations.

You want the barthesian ideal of a critic, you gotta pay the barthesian ideal of a critic.

seasons (waiting on you) is on spotify now fyi

yyeaaaaaaah

I am disappointed that this thread is about a croupier rather than the new album. I need someone to help me sort out my feelings about "A Song For Our Grandfathers".

have not heard anything outside of what is available for streaming

but I am excited to hear that song now

it is like a fairy floss of feels

streaming!

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/16/286898446/first-listen-future-islands-singles

ty!

This song has grown on me quite a lot, it's some forgotten 80s heartland rock star decided to write a big wussy epic over the top of the opening chords to Born Slippy.

haha it does sound like the opening of born slippy

(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.