In 2014 Future Islands appeared on
The Late Show with David Letterman.
Imagine your nerdy high school math
teacher as the lead singer in a rock
band. We all had one, mostly, not in
rock bands, but maybe sometimes.
I think of a colleague of mine, a math
teacher, one who will, for the purpose
of this poem-like-thing, go nameless,
who might be interchangeable with
the lead singer of Future Islands, at
least visually, he would, he would, indeed.
Do you see your nerdy math teacher?
You imagine that they wouldn’t know
what to do with their body. You would
expect that when they are “getting
into it,” awkwardness might ensue.
Strange crouching, funny leaping,
a kind of anti-rhythmical dancing.
They just look really strange. But
it’s not that they can’t sing. The singing
is good, but even the singing is awkward in
some ways–it’s tendency to croon
real low and then bust out some high
notes kind of randomly, maybe even
to break out with a scream. Otherwise,
the singing is accurate, tuneful, not at
all pitchy, only emotive in a way that
is sometimes surprising, startling,
and not very memorable in the hook
department. I’m done now with making
light fun of this lead singer, so let’s talk
about the music.
Lots of keyboards–almost to an
80’s degree. It feels like keyboards are
the central instrument, even though
the drums are thumping and the bass is
chugging along. The guitar feels like its
job is to compliment the keys–there
are no riffs; there are no solos. Think of
Flock of Seagulls with better musicians.
Think of Gary Numan, but way more upbeat,
although there are some slow grooves.
Think of 80’s Roxy Music. These guys
are making new music to take you back.
It’s good music. I like it. I appreciate its
earnestness. Lyrically, it’s very serious
in tone, but because I’ve not studied the
words, I couldn’t quite tell you what
these songs are about, and if I had one
more criticism of this eccentric lead
singer, it would be that his words,
as they are performed on these tracks,
are not clear very often without lyric
sheet reference–with a few exceptions.
But there’s clearly a seriousness here.
It might be that Samuel T. Herring
(his name even has a math teacher ring
to it), might have some very important
things to say; he may even fancy himself
to be a poet-mathematician. To all of
my math teacher friends, I apologize.
But if they or if you are hankering for
a brand new 80’s band to love, but one
from the 21st century, Future Islands is your band.
Notes on the vinyl edition: As Long As You Are, 4AD Records, 2020, turquoise vinyl.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
michael jarmer 