
Singles breezes
along almost effortlessly for the first half. Tracks like “Seasons (Waiting on
You)” and “Sun in the Morning” coast along evoking a world in bloom- paradoxical
imagery to be sure once you take into account the tough-lipped melancholy of
Herring’s vocals. The album devotes its midpoint to hazy reflection with the
nostalgic “Back in the Tall Glass” and the slowly thunderous “A Song For Our
Grandfathers” (Herring crooning a tune with this title is everything you’d
expect, just short of becoming a full-blown Irish drinking song). Yet, Future
Islands reserves the most compelling material on Singles for its back half with “Like the Moon” and “Light House”-
tracks that would have fit in seamlessly among On the Water’s more poignant moments. All of this, of course,
depending on the temperment of the listener, may register as completely
overblown and even farcical. Herring’s manic vocal presence, which can be
described as Morrisey by way of an unnerving David Bowie/Tom Jones hybrid, is an
acquired taste to be sure. Yet for those attuned to the approach, his is an undeniably
exciting guiding hand- efficiently juggling the album’s poppier elements with a
tendency for unhinged histrionics (see: the sporadic death metal wail in “Fall
From Grace”). Let us all rest assured that, if Singles is indeed the album that pushes Future Islands closer to
the stratosphere, an anarchic follow-up is most likely not far behind.
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