Last month, Field Music – the English “national treasures” (NME) composed of Sunderland-born brothers Peter and David Brewis – shared their single “Orion From The Street,” a track which built some considerable excitement among the Field Music-faithful (including their fellow indie veteran The New Pornographers’ AC Newman) about what might becoming next from the band. Ever prolific, the duo have released two full lengths since 2018 that neatly encapsulate the band’s unique approach: a critically-adored new wave-addled art pop LP about Brexit in 2018s Open Here, and a high concept song cycle about the aftermath of the First World War, Making A New World in 2020. Today, the band are announcing their 8th studio full length Flat White Moon (due out April 23rd via Memphis Industries), and sharing the album’s lead single “No Pressure.”
LISTEN: Field Music’s “No Pressure” HERE
After a pair of albums that have skewed towards the more ornate and esoteric extremes of the band’s sound, their latest began as an attempt to make something more direct and “physical,” with songs inspired by ’70s rock and folk influences, that later evolved to encompass the organic-feeling, sample-based approach found on albums like Beck’s Odelay and De La Soul’s Three Feet High and Rising. For the most part, the album has fewer explicitly political themes than previous records, though lead single “No Pressure” (which is accompanied by a video that pokes fun of YouTube musical instructional videos) tackles the political classes, in what David Brewis describes as a kind of inversion of the lyrics of David Bowie and Queen’s “Under Pressure.”
“It feels like we’re in a new political paradigm where no one takes responsibility for anything and, even worse, they don’t seem to feel any shame or remorse about it,” David Brewis explains. “The song is like a mirror image of ‘Under Pressure’. But if that was about ‘people on the street,’ this is mostly from the perspective of someone up on high insisting that nothing is his fault while the rest of us scratch around trying to hold things together.“
As part of the announcement of the new album, Field Music have shared plans for a live stream show to celebrate the release of the LP that will take place at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds on April 29th. Tickets are available for purchase here.
Keep your mind open.
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[Thanks to Tom at Hive Mind PR.]