Field Music

Following a self-imposed three-year hiatus, the UK's Field Music returns with a new 20-track double-album of artful English pop. Powered by brothers and co-frontmen Peter and David Brewis, Field Music's line-up now includes Kev Dosdale (guitar and keys) and Ian Black (bass). The new album (self-titled but identified as Field Music (Measure) to distinguish it from their debut album) is a gloriously rich LP that entwines the brothers' renewed love of the rock music canon with a rediscovery of some of pop's overlooked adventurers. If one listens closely, one might hear echos of Led Zeppelin, Bela Bartok, Prince, Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis, The Beatles, Bowie, Richard Thompson, PJ Harvey, Crazy Horse, Erik Satie, Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Lou Reed, Brian Eno, The Blue Nile, Pierre Schaeffer, Roxy Music, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Todd Rundgren, and Discipline-era King Crimson. In terms of breadth and quality, it trumps the band's first two well-received albums, 2006's self-titled and 2007's Tones of Town, as well as the brothers' solo efforts--Peter's The Week That Was and David's School of Language project Sea from Shore. Standout tracks are the dissonant funk of "Let's Write a Book" (a call-to-arms for the perpetually apologetic), the mutated blues rock of "Each Time Is a New Time" (a riposte to misplaced faith in repetition), the driving, splashing pop number "Them That Do Nothing" (about a valiant willingness to make mistakes), the multilayered melodic riffery of "The Rest Is Noise," and the epic found-sound song-cycle that starts with "See You Later."