Reviews
Field Music
Tones of Town
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2007-03-08
Those who love Field Music love them a lot -- isn't that line normally used for eulogies at funerals? Well don't worry, this review is not eulogizing anything; to the contrary, it is introducing those of you who don't know to a charming three-piece out of the United Kingdom -- that is of course if you haven't made acquaintance with them already.
If you know about Field Music, my bet is its because an avid fan of the band tipped you off in their direction. That's my story -- I was cruising around on Soulseek chatrooms, trying to find some new bands to look into, when somebody passionately convinced me to invest some time into Field Music's self-titled debut. Only now am I realizing the importance of the "invest some time" part of this fan's plea.
That's the book on Field Music: the music is layered and it all takes a while to marinade and make its impact. Over a year after originally hearing the debut, I finally see the value in it. I wasn't about to make the same mistake with Tones of Town, so I've been listening to it steadily for a couple of weeks now.
Here are two conclusions I have drawn: Tones of Town is vastly superior to Field Music's somewhat frustrating debut; and intentionally or not, Field Music has gone in the direction of tighter, more immediately gratifying songs on their sophomore release.
This is what makes me look like a big hypocrite. It pissed me off when Modest Mouse released Good News For People Who Love Bad News, and I've since gone from pissed to borderline infuriated. So Field Music does something similar and I praise it -- don't ask why; I can't answer why. It's just music -- sometimes it can't be explained.
Maybe it's just when I am listening to a song like "Working to Work" -- which is a rockin' poppy tune -- I want to be able to appreciate it right away, at least on some level. Pop music is supposed to be very accessible; bands like Modest Mouse aren't. That is the difference, at least how I see it.
I couldn't believe it when this lost in Track-fu, because I figured it was far too catchy to lose. I think it was catchy to the point that Terri identified it as cheese, even if she didn't flat out say that much. Personally, I love the multi-vocal dynamic going on here and the prominent, oft-repeated guitar riff. Not to mention it's easy to relate to a song about the frustrations of working if you have no time to play, or an end goal you are working towards.
An entire album of songs like "Working to Work" would get stale very fast; snobby reviewers like myself would write it off as a sixties Beatles/Beach Boys impersonation and that would be the end of it. Field Music surely realized this, so songs like "A Gap Has Appeared" are here to raise the degree-of-difficulty bar. The theatrics here are enormous and impressive in one of the more ambitious two-minute songs my ears have ever experienced. I wasn't anticipating such effectively used piano, and they've been using strings most of the album but never with such a dynamic impact as here. I'm certain band leader Dave Brewis has several well-worn Beach Boy records that have left an impression on him that can be heard at the highest level here.
It blends so effortlessly into "The Closer I Find" that it takes an astute ear to even realize the song changed. It only dawned on me when I finally got around to listening while watching the tracklist. I'd love to sit down with Brewis to find out what he was thinking when he wrote these lyrics, but I should include them here because if you take my advice and hear this song you will want them to sing along: "Don't you say no, 'cause the longer we go, the closer at hand, I want you still and we are closer at hand." Great pop music often goes by in a flash, and has the listener reaching for his remote or clicking back on the song to hear it again. Several times I've found myself listening to the highlights of Tones of Town three, even four times consecutively.
I should at least mention one song on the first half of the album, even if that first half pales in comparison to the superior second. If I don't start listening at the sixth track (and I often do when I'm in a pinch for time) I'll make sure to hear the excellent "A House is Not a Home." It might be my ear, but to me this sounds like an updated, indie-pop version of something I might have expected from the Talking Heads. The Talking Heads were so far ahead of their time that I still wonder if music has truly caught up with where they were, and to some extent the same could be said about Field Music. Why they chose a song without a chorus in the truest concept of the word as their second single, I'm not sure. It seems to be almost self sabotage, yet the honest truth is people listening to radio aren't going to get Field Music anyhow so maybe that was the whole point.
I like where Field Music went with Tones of Town -- taking one step toward the masses, but only so far as to give them a glimpse of what it's like on the other side. Personally, I find the blandness of the first half of the album put a ceiling on the score I can give, but the last six songs still more than justify shelling out the twenty bucks to get this on your CD rack.
Score: 7.7
- Dan