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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazing, Flawless Pop Album!!, February 14, 2007
As a reviewer, one of the most difficult things to do is review an album that you're entirely infatuated with. It would be easy to rant on and on about how great an album is without pointing out it's flaws or shortcomings. And here I find myself with Field Music's newest release. I am not familiar with their previous work, so I'm beginning with a fresh slate here. However, I cannot get over the greatness of "Tones of Town." In many ways, it is a perfect album, stringing together 11 solid pop songs effortlessly, and completely enthralling me in the process.
Why would I call it perfect? Because these songs are all really great, and there's really not one song that I could do away with on the album. Whether it's the heavy guitars of "Give It Lose It Take It," the playful melodies of "A House is Not a Home," or the haunting harmonies of "Kingston," there's not a moment on this album that fails to impress. Every song is rich with complexty without foregoing a steady, upbeat pop feel. Take "Tones of Town," for example, a song that merrily floats along in the beginning but eventually erupts with distorted guitars and vocals, only to melt away into a friendly bopping guitar solo before it's over. Field Music is a very talented group, but unlike so many other talented bands, they're immediately accessible. They're not going to beat you over the head with complex riffs, and mind-boggling melodies. The mere fact that they can fully display their vast talents while still being fun is awesome.
In "Working to Work," the singer nonchalantly notes, "Leisure is useless when you find that nothing ain't easy when you're working to work" over a steady guitar and drum beat. It's a great song, and one that you'll probably find yourself singing along to after just a few listens. Then there's "A Gap Has Appeared" a song that opens with the delicate flutters of piano and violin before sounding like a collaboration of Queen and The New pornographers. It runs head-on into the undeniably catchy "Closer at Hand" where the singer states, "The questions we tend to ask are useless if time is too fast."
It's very difficult to convey the awesomeness of "Tones of Town" to someone who is not familiar with Field Music. Their music has a very timeless feel to it, and as I've already stated numerous times, it's pretty flawless. It's only real downside is it's brevity, clocking in at just over 30 minutes. But during that time you're almost guaranteed to smile, sing, dance, or some other carefree activity. Fans of bands like The Shins should have very little trouble liking this album as it's not too different from that bands better moments. While 2007 has already begun to show it's great selection of music, "Tones of Town" is definitely the most solid and enjoyable album to release thus far this year. You absolutely have to listen to it!
Recommended for fans of Field Music, The Shins, The Hidden Cameras, and anyone who wants to hear what will probably be one of the top five albums of 2007.
Key Tracks:
1. "Sit Tight"
2. "A House is Not a Home"
3. "Working to Work"
4. "Closer at Hand"
5. "Place Yourself"
9 out of 10 Stars
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant in every way, December 12, 2007
Normally, I would be outraged to buy a CD and find that it's only 31 minutes long. It would be like buying an LP with sound on only one side. But in this case, I don't give the length a second thought. Each individual song here is richer than any full hour-long CD by most bands, and at the end of 31 minutes your head is reeling with how far you've come.
The remarkable thing is how nothing in any song goes where you expect it to go. The melodies flow along for a time and then go skittering off down some alley, only to dart into a doorway you didn't realize was there, and the song structures are just as unpredictable, shifting tempo, harmonic framework, and feel three or four times within a 3-minute song (trust me, there's no way the 30-second clips here can even begin to suggest what's going on with these songs). Yet you never get the sense that these guys are doing it to show off how tricky they can be; there's not a nerdy atom in the recording. It's more like they're simply following the song where it wants to go. And when you hear them do it, you realize how virtually every other band around is, to one degree or another, taking the song where they think you want it to go, or where they think tradition or image or the market wants it to go. Even bands that aim at breaking new ground aim at it. These guys break new ground by getting out of the way--they hatch the song and then let it discover the world on its own. But they never put a foot wrong. Even as each moment on the CD seems spontaneously discovered, each note seems to have been carefully considered and specifically chosen for maximum impact. I know that sounds contradictory, and ordinarily the two ideas are mutually exclusive, but somehow Field Music manages to pull it off, and that's a large part of the fascination in this recording. It's like watching a fire in the fireplace--always shifting yet always coherent.
These guys don't seem to be beholden to anyone. A comparison with XTC seems appropriate, but only because they share a fresh sensibility toward pop music (and XTC is much more deliberate in their explorations), and they remind me of NRBQ in their carelessness about convention and spontaneity (although without the deliberate anarchy), but Field Music isn't trying to sound like anyone. It is enormously encouraging to find that in this age when the music business is like factory farming something this original can still sprout. If you have even a slight affection for pop music, buy this CD.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazing, Flawless Pop Album!!, February 14, 2007
As a reviewer, one of the most difficult things to do is review an album that you're entirely infatuated with. It would be easy to rant on and on about how great an album is without pointing out it's flaws or shortcomings. And here I find myself with Field Music's newest release. I am not familiar with their previous work, so I'm beginning with a fresh slate here. However, I cannot get over the greatness of "Tones of Town." In many ways, it is a perfect album, stringing together 11 solid pop songs effortlessly, and completely enthralling me in the process.
Why would I call it perfect? Because these songs are all really great, and there's really not one song that I could do away with on the album. Whether it's the heavy guitars of "Give It Lose It Take It," the playful melodies of "A House is Not a Home," or the haunting harmonies of "Kingston," there's not a moment on this album that fails to impress. Every song is rich with complexty without foregoing a steady, upbeat pop feel. Take "Tones of Town," for example, a song that merrily floats along in the beginning but eventually erupts with distorted guitars and vocals, only to melt away into a friendly bopping guitar solo before it's over. Field Music is a very talented group, but unlike so many other talented bands, they're immediately accessible. They're not going to beat you over the head with complex riffs, and mind-boggling melodies. The mere fact that they can fully display their vast talents while still being fun is awesome.
In "Working to Work," the singer nonchalantly notes, "Leisure is useless when you find that nothing ain't easy when you're working to work" over a steady guitar and drum beat. It's a great song, and one that you'll probably find yourself singing along to after just a few listens. Then there's "A Gap Has Appeared" a song that opens with the delicate flutters of piano and violin before sounding like a collaboration of Queen and The New pornographers. It runs head-on into the undeniably catchy "Closer at Hand" where the singer states, "The questions we tend to ask are useless if time is too fast."
It's very difficult to convey the awesomeness of "Tones of Town" to someone who is not familiar with Field Music. Their music has a very timeless feel to it, and as I've already stated numerous times, it's pretty flawless. It's only real downside is it's brevity, clocking in at just over 30 minutes. But during that time you're almost guaranteed to smile, sing, dance, or some other carefree activity. Fans of bands like The Shins should have very little trouble liking this album as it's not too different from that bands better moments. While 2007 has already begun to show it's great selection of music, "Tones of Town" is definitely the most solid and enjoyable album to release thus far this year. You absolutely have to listen to it!
Recommended for fans of Field Music, The Shins, The Hidden Cameras, and anyone who wants to hear what will probably be one of the top five albums of 2007.
Key Tracks:
1. "Sit Tight"
2. "A House is Not a Home"
3. "Working to Work"
4. "Closer at Hand"
5. "Place Yourself"
9 out of 10 Stars
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