Anyone who witnessed Samuel Herring’s manic dancing on the David Letterman show should be eagerly anticipating the release of Future Islands‘ new album Singles which is out on 25th March.
The recorded version of Seasons, the song they performed on Letterman, is slightly more restrained with none of the Waitsian growls that Herring specialises in but it’s still a great song.
The boppy 80s synch pop backing is quite at odds with his passionate, soulful vocals but somehow it works brilliantly.
I’ve a feeling I’ll be streaming this to death in the coming weeks.
I’m really hooked on this song by the Baltimore trio Future Islands, all the more so after watching them perform it on You Tube. Samuel Herring has a remarkable voice – very mannered and thespian, like an English gentleman press-ganged into rock’n’roll.
This, together with the poetic drama of the song, make it irresistible.
It comes from their album An Evening Air on Thrill Jockey and a stripped down version also appears on a limited edition 12″ EP called Undressed. Here is the video (+ lyrics)
This is what I know / The canopy loss of our home / Is a far cry, while I’m away.
Tethered to finding a rope / We walk in precarious ways / And go alone at night / To Misery’s bed./In Misery’s bed, we stay.
So far away
Here in the tremble and pulse / With the rush and the weight of the world / I am a cannibal, known /Begging the lashes to break
You find me awake in a dream / A scream in the dark, so it seems / Or is that just how it leaves?
The shadow I cast now the breeze.
So far away
So this is how it goes / With the loss of our canopy home / That falls with the leaves from the trees / As we pass.
And I wasn’t there in the last / But I was surely there from the first / Here, in my chest where you burst / I keep the crush and the weight of the world.
Anyone who witnessed Samuel Herring’s manic dancing on the David Letterman show should be eagerly anticipating the release of Future Islands‘ new album Singles which is out on 25th March.
