Future Islands - On The Water

i took these:

http://i.imgur.com/dWe8fzn.png

http://i.imgur.com/Tj5oB92.png

Jesus, those are beautiful

yeah 2nd one is so good

this song is really good but that letterman performance was like a deleted scene from "walk hard" or something

so i thought the letterman performance was like bad paul young karaoke. is the studio shit like good paul young?

It's all good. Give me all of that you've got.

missed there was a link to the actual video up top, sorry.

i wonder whether neil diamond or tom jones will cover this first.

you guys are making very good unintentional arguments for why they're awesome

i dunno if i'd say unintentional - i'm well aware someone could respond with "I love Paul Young!"

this is machine-tooled for ILX & will probably go top 5 in the EOY

On the Water was awesome in the same way and didn't get too much attention here.

Walter Galt
Posted: May 19, 2013 at 12:30:46 PM
They are the quintessential band where I rarely think about them, then when a song comes up on shuffle I will become totally obsessed and play them non-stop for a week straight

This is otm. I always hear "beach foam" on an old mix in my car and play it over and over.

i dunno if i'd say unintentional - i'm well aware someone could respond with "I love Paul Young!"

― da croupier, Sunday, March 9, 2014 8:02 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

in the youtube comments, a lot of young ppl who had never heard them prior to the Letterman performance were like "omg his voice reminds me of Springsteen!" so just keep in mind that not everyone is familiar with Meatloaf or whatever terrible shit you were subjected to in your youth

shouldn't you be like "oh yay, now i have all these 80s synth-soul hams i can check out!" rather than complaining they're being brought up?

Paul Young lacks growl. The comparison is weak

soul hams

i'll admit there were those moments on letterman were he got a frog in his throat in a way that would never happen to paul

He growls a bit through every song. For the whole song.

i only know the hit, sorry

i mean i said paul young karaoke. I'm acknowledging the amateurish elements.

shouldn't you be like "oh yay, now i have all these 80s synth-soul hams i can check out!" rather than complaining they're being brought up?

― da croupier, Sunday, March 9, 2014 8:34 PM (34 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(xps)

it's like, when my mom would overhear me listening to heavy metal and say "jesus, this is worse than AC/DC!", it didn't make me want to listen to AC/DC, y'know?

sorry dude but if someone making a cynical "lol are people really getting into Some New Group That Sounds Like This Old Thing" crack gets you upset that people are making reference points you don't know and not taking it seriously suggests you maybe shouldn't be passing around a clip of a dude doing a herky-jerky dance to 80s synth-soul on letterman

indie favorites often resemble unfashionable shit from 20-30 years earlier, you know? life is hard.

just given it to us straight, maaaan

da croupier you must have missed the memo, "caring what the 80s were like" is no longer a thing my generation has an emotional investment in :)

i still remember when the mean ol' guys at the record store brought up vanilla fudge when i made them listen to the afghan whigs. it hurt, but i'm grateful in hindsight.

WOMEN DANCED BEHIND TOM JONES, AND MEN THEY FOUGHT THE WARS
THE CHILDREN LISTENED TO PAUL YOUNG, AND EVERYONE WAS POOR

(last post, then I gotta bounce)

1. Dismissing a contemporary band because they sound too much like the sum of their influences without appearing to break any new ground stylistically
2. Dismissing a contemporary band because they remind you of stuff you never liked in the first place and resented having to hear during its window of mainstream popularity

I do not believe that the difference between 1. and 2. could be totally lost on you, da croup

actually, i'm a little young for description #2. But i'm sorry if you don't think it's fair to say (again, based on their hit) that these guys sound like an amateurish version of something that was popular a while back.

Letterman clip made me think "if Rick Astley had never met Stock Aitken Waterman."

HOW DARE YOU

like the children of the eastern seaboard have any responsibility to care about your precious SAW

this is machine-tooled for ILX & will probably go top 5 in the EOY

― You cannot interrupt his tea stirring because it is his holy trick (imago), Sunday, March 9, 2014 4:04 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

bookmarking

"machine-tooled"

3d printed for ILX

am I right that the argt being presented here is "you whipper-snappers don't know the roots of this music"

I thought that was it, but after reading da croupier's latest replies, I'm more confused than ever

croup, I'm not sure why you're hung up on the notion of this performance being "amateurish"—the band is perfectly tight, & Sam goes all-in on his schtick despite having an audience of mostly indifferent non-fans... which is basically the definition of "professionalism"? like, when I think of "amateurish" TV performances, I think of 90s alt-rock bands mumbling thru their one hit as if they were just dragged out of bed and thrown on the Letterman stage by major label hired goons.

... maybe you woulda liked them better when they sounded like New Order, idk

man they're way more meatloafy than sprinsteeny, thank god

haven't watched the letterman yet but it's probably awesome, only saw them once a few years ago and it was one of my favorite lead singer performances ever, he was like a campy hamlet belting every line to poor yorick

nice description. definitely gives that feel on letterman when he lifts his right arm up. it's all very theatrical, but he seems so genuinely in it that it's mesmerizing. felt like young sufjan seeing idioteque on SNL with this performance.

Saw the Letterman clip and to me its kinda of an amateurish take on Simply Red

am I right that the argt being presented here is "you whipper-snappers don't know the roots of this music"

nope

lol xpost

Local band done good. Lovin it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is yr argt dc, I'm not getting it either. Also just watched/loved this

My argument is that it struck me as Paul young karaoke. Amateurish vocals over eighties synth soul. After that its just variations of saying "sorry but tough shit" to Bernie's various qualms with that estimation.

I never said the kids gotta learn, just that the kids gotta toughen up if they're gonna boo Hoo when cranky old farts in other towns aren't "zomg these guys are from a college town, transcendence!"

Ran is great. North Star is great. If they carry on in this groove for the next album they'll lose me but for now I'm quite happy to float around in their little weird world

it's got some great cuts like 'Time On Her Side,' 'Ran,' and 'Ancient Water,' but then there are clunkers like 'Shadows,' which is kind of cringe-y (imo)...

"Future Islands sound like Robert Palmer struggling to untie a raincoat". David Quantick on Twitter

^ This is such an insufferable "zing". Can almost hear someone chuckling "Oh, DELICIOUS!" into the arm of their smoking jacket.

a raincoat!

This band is great *and* that's a very funny joke from a very funny writer

joke is ilm xkcd

It's a good joke if you're one of the lamer British people on this board or Alfred Lord Sotosyn.

that is what they sound like though. (still great)

I'm quite enjoying Samuel Herring's debut of his hip hop side project as Hemlock Ernst with Kenny Segal.

ooooh wtf that's him? popped on my recommendations, it's good! i was wondering who the other dude was