Field Music - Write Your Own History

may be referred to as ‘that other band from the North East’ all too often, perhaps they are taking the idea of pedanticism a tad too far on the cover notes to ‘Write Your Own History’, and we’re almost certain Electronic Eye Machine is a really awful name for a band. But, do we really care? Unless the Sunderland trio have already taken out restraining orders on you, it’s essentially a whole new album.

Kicking off with recent single You’re Not Supposed To’ may seem odd for something attempting to act as a retrospective, but acting as a self-styled benchmark as to where Field Music are currently, it does the job well - complete with choral melodies and stop/start rhythms.

‘Shorter Shorter’’s ‘Trying To Sit Out’ and ‘Breakfast Song’ may barely reach three minutes combined, but with delicate strings, and dual layered vocals, it’s about as far removed from short, sharp bursts as is possible. ‘Feed The Birds’ and ‘In The Kitchen’ from ‘You Can Decide’, although no less endearing, are however definitely darker than the casual listener would expect from Field Music.

The trio from ‘If Only The Moon Were Up’ bring even more variation on the Field Music theme, with ‘I’m Tired’ sounding like an early The Electric Soft Parade reworking a Belle and Sebastian track, ‘Test Your Reaction’ a timely release of teenage angst, and final track ‘Can You See Anything’ the definite grower of the collection.

However it’s penultimate effort ‘Alternating Current’ which really proves to be the highlight, using the delicate melancholy of Eels, as well as kitsch atmospherics to create what is an exceptional track by anyone’s standards.

Not really an album, not really a B-sides collection, and not really a history (unless you’d decided to listen backwards), it’s just a record of some really rather good songs.