Future Islands - Singles

observes the opening lyric of Future Islands’ new album, which is funny, because this is a band immune to change. The severe kind, at least. That’s because they started out sporting extreme, anxious pop and a step anywhere else would just be a diversion. Eight years since forming, four albums deep - there remains no other band sounding remotely like Future Islands. Their cocktail of stabbing synths and Samuel T. Herring’s coarse, all-emotions-at-once vocals is the kind of sound that isn’t worth touching from the outside.

‘Singles’ stays resolute to the unswerving formula that led the band towards 4AD in the first place. The title is either a knowing nod that yes, they’re long gone from self-started days and a debut on Upset The Rhythm. Either that or it’s an acknowledgment that they’ve struck gold on ten concise albeit oddball triumphs.

With ‘Spirit’, Herring howls in the same manner he always has. The synths sound sharper than ever, though, like they’ve endured a facelift without the wooden smile after-effect. ‘Doves’ flies like its very subject, off-kilter rhythms deceiving from what’s essentially a massive pop song, doused in ‘ooh-hoo’ chants like it’s auditioning for a talent show. It’s easy to forget the sheer audaciousness of what Future Islands are doing. None of this should work, from the Dracula-in-space groove of ‘Like the Moon’ to ‘A Song for our Grandfathers” touching family portrait. On paper, Herring’s stubbed out cigarette vocals, tap-tap drum patterns and cheesy 80s hooks should, as a trio, be rendered ridiculous. Instead these deranged components act as one, swinging into motion in one fatal blow. That it comes out sounding seamless is another thing altogether.