Field Music- Tones Of Town

Review of Field Music- Tones Of Town by Field Music
Field Music- Tones Of Town
An album review by
26 Jan 2007
ARTIST: 
Field Music
RECORD LABEL: 
RELEASE DATE: 
Mon 22nd Jan 2007
RAGGED RATING: 
5/5

 

Unappreciated, unheralded, underrated, underestimated… Add the prefix un- to any word willing to accept (even undernourished when it comes to wiry songwriting supremo David Brewis), and you have a pretty accurate summary of the career of Field Music thus far. It must gnaw at even the least sensible of pop enthusiasts that Weirside’s finest aren’t more readily referred to as Britain’s best. Given then that Tones of Town is one of the most stylish, enduring and beautiful records released in years, well, it makes it all the more painful.
Much like Midlake’s equally mesmerising Trials of Captain Van Occupanther, Field Music’s second album ‘proper’, is an instant classic. As soon as the cafeteria clatter gives way to the first buoyant bars of ‘Give It Lose It Take It’, the immediacy is almost overwhelming. Tones of Town is a record put together with remarkable poise and done so entirely by brothers Peter and David Brewis. Had Phil Spector not more pressing matters on his mind, or more accurately be out of it, he’d surely have a torch to pass on.
Yet Field Music’s is not a simple formula, if one can surmise Spector’s ‘Wall of Sound’ thus. When the taller of the Brewis’ pines that “the simple things you get are complicated, you can’t explain it” on the album’s titles track, he could well have had the album itself in mind. Seamless, melodic simplicity emerge from the most intricate and complex arrangements throughout. Raising your right hand and asking How, like telly heroes of yesteryear, is not something to be done lightly.
The result is a stunning backdrop for eleven lyrical snapshots to befit the album’s title, with ‘Working To Work’ and lead off single ‘A House Is Not A Home’ striking particular resonance. More accurately, these are eleven pieces to prove that while Brian Wilson’s influence may be too readily pointed to nowadays, his legacy is undoubtedly realised on this most delightful of records. 

Mini review

Filed under "genius albums that not nearly enough people know about", how Tones of Town didn’t at the very least make Field Music blog and website darlings is still a bit mystery. The Weirsiders’ second LP is pure songcraft, marrying intricate arrangements with intrinsic melody to an absolutely perfect degree, this is a record that is impossible not to listen to on repeat and repeat and... More daring that their debut, and trust us on this, has led to an even more daring 20-track, double LP due early next year. An instant classic from the most talented brothers in music that make Jedward look like... Oh wait. (Padraic Halpin)

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