To See The World Is To Wake Brand New: A Brief Review Of "As Long As You Are", The New Album From Future Islands

When a band leans more on keyboards than guitars to buttress their sound, I'm the sort of listener who usually assumes that that's an ironic move, designed to signal that the group is probably reaching back to New Wave of past decades to explicitly place their sound in the vicinity of same. Baltimore's Future Islands are not exactly doing that. Sure, As Long As You Are, their newest album, out on 4AD tomorrow, is suffused with glorious and lush keyboard figures, and synth-washes that many an Eighties band would have killed for, but those passages make up the base of emotional indie-pop here. The heartfelt vocals of Sam T. Herring certainly help anchor this to a genuine place too.

"For Sure", the first single, rushes by as sleek as it can be, even as "Born in a War" marries a dance-y beat with flashes of synths. The remarkable thing about the music of Future Islands is how immediate this all feels. I can't think of too many bands operating today who can embrace technology this way and get what's nearly an emo record in return. Herring, William Cashion (bass), Gerrit Welmers (keyboards), and Mike Lowry (drums) approach this material with both seriousness and a lightness of touch that results in music with real warmth, even if the textures here are those of electronic music. "I Knew You", for instance, features one of Herring's best ever performances, a really vulnerable one, but the entire thing is as smooth as a sea of ice around him.

It helps, of course, that the melodies throughout As Long As You Are are strong ones, from those early singles, to "City's Face" with its nearly peppy blurps-and-bleeps and tinkling synths, and on to the harder, more intense "Hit the Coast" at the end of the record. It's all superbly paced, and expertly placed, giving the whole enterprise the kind of vibe albums used to have. And with Herring's lyrics, especially the line I quoted in the title from "Waking" and the words of "Moonlight", peppering this project with emotional nuance, and affirmations, the whole record is oddly uplifting. The pieces seem so simple on paper, but the way things are assembled and arranged here is what makes As Long As You Are so listenable, and such a, frankly, lush record. The more I play this, the more I find myself moved by it. In that sense, it's exactly the kind of thing to give us some hope in a truly awful era.

As Long As You Are is out tomorrow via 4AD.

More details on Future Islands via the official website.

[Photo: Justin Flythe]