Album review: Field Music - Plumb
Peter and David Brewis’ fourth missive is a cocktail of complexity, no doubt. But is the mix right?
Peter and David Brewis’ fourth missive is a cocktail of complexity, no doubt.
This kooky 15-track beast is bursting at the seams with time signatures, riffs, asides, motifs, instrumental noodling, harmonies and - underpinning it all - ideas. Great in theory, but the way they all jostle for your attention and jolt the songs about can be disorientating.
At it’s brightest the Sunderland band filter a late-era Beatles psychedelia through their fragmented instrument-heavy indie, as on Start The Day Right. A surprisingly funky bassline directs A New Town to the dancefloor, too.
But Plumb would likely benefit from some judicious editing to make a more coherent set, without it losing its higgledy-piggledy charm.
It’s not until almost the end, when Just Like Everyone Else strides onto the speakers with its slow, liquid guitar strum and pulsing bass undercurrent, that it feels like they’ve exhausted the urge to cram a school music department’s assets into each song.
Their single (I Keep Thinking About) A New Thing is a fulsome, jerky highlight that bizarrely signs off the record, but at least leaves the brothers - and the listener - on a clear-headed note.
Most Read
- 1 'Rest in peace child': Tributes paid to teenager stabbed to death
- 2 Community bus serving Islington and Hackney cancelled after surging fuel prices
- 3 Plumber found guilty of road rage murder of Deliveroo driver
- 4 Angel station closures on one in five days due to staff shortages
- 5 Hundreds of novelty teapots on show in Upper Street
- 6 West Hampstead man fatally stabbed in Ealing
- 7 Product sold at Tesco recalled due to risk of disease-causing bacteria
- 8 Arteta's Arsenal plan coming together nicely
- 9 'Our sandwiches were floating': Islington cafe owner counts cost of burst water mains flood
- 10 Met Office: Thunderstorm warning issued for London
3 stars