Field Music - Plumb Review

Field Music have spent most of their career making post-punk for pop lovers. Like their Sunderland, UK, brethren, the Futureheads and Maximo Park, the duo had a penchant for playing cut and paste with clichés-- paying melodic homage to Paul McCartney, but going art-school with its song form.

But when the band's core members, brothers Peter and David Brewis, re-emerged from a three-year hiatus in 2010, it seemed like they had ironed out their reservations about straightforward rock'n'roll. Not only was their comeback record, Measure, a double album-- the true standard for rock excess-- but it found them writing full-fledged songs, complete with verses, choruses, and guitar solos.

That's all over now, though. Field Music's latest album, Plumb, finds them returning to the deconstructionist impulses that guided it's earliest records. With 15 songs in 35 minutes, this is Field Music at their most baroque-- a record of sweetly melodic miniatures that coalesce into form only long enough to tumble into the next meticulously designed song suite....full text Sunderland's Field Music exist out on a limb, their distance from indie-rock conventions mirrored in their physical distance from the capital. The fourth album by brothers Peter and David Brewis (plus Kevin Dosdale and new bassist Andrew Lowther) retains their trademark arrhythmic time-keeping and melodic handbrake turns while deploying more heavenly harmonies, as on the snippet "How Many More Times?". Throughout, this complex music celebrates the everyday – "Sorry Again, Mate", shrugs track three; "Who'll Pay the Bills?" asks track eight – but Field Music remain more impressive than lovable....full text The fourth album from Sunderland, UK natives Field Music comes on the heels of 2010’s Field Music (Measure), a record that garnered the band a fair amount of critical success. It found them branching out from their post-punk roots, and their association with fellow Sunderland natives The Futureheads, they even went as far as to include field recording pieces into the 75-minute, 2 disc set.


That adventurousness set the bar fairly high for the follow up. Rather than producing another sprawling multi-disc set Field Music, led by brothers Peter and David Brewis, offer up a compact collection of 15 songs
that barely tops the 30-minute mark. While the press materials that preceded Plumb referred to it as an album that dipped into 20th century film music, ‘from Bernstein to Willy Wonka’, the exploration here is much less overt than on its predecessor.


What they’ve come up with is a nice blend of Brit and art rock with some cinematic and proggy flair thrown in for effect. Opening track "Start the Day Right" is an orchestral kick-start that borrows from the likes of Yes and Paul McCartney of all places, and fits the falsetto vocals of the Brewis brothers nicely. "Guillotine" and "From Hide ad Seek to Heartache" are similarly grand in scope, showcasing the bands songwriting chops and their ability to blend the roots of their sound with new influences. "Just Like Everyone Else" is perhaps the finest of the bunch, a churning rocker that harkens back to the sun and psychedelics of the 60’s...full text