Future Islands will release their fifth studio album, ‘The Far Field’, on April 7th 2017. The Baltimore-based trio’s first single ‘Ran‘ can be heard now on Spotify.
‘The Far Field’ refines and builds on the breakthroughs of their 2014 album ‘Singles’, bursting with undeniable hooks and disarmingly honest lyrics written by Samuel T. Herring (vocals, lyrics), William Cashion (bass, guitars) and Gerrit Welmers (keyboards, programming).
After the success of ‘Singles’ and the hundreds of Future Islands shows played in that period, the trio came off the road and jumped straight into other projects. They released albums as Peals (Cashion’s project with Bruce Willen from Double Dagger), Moss Of Aura (Welmers), Hemlock Ernst (Herring), and the Snails (Cashion and Herring), whilst Herring also lent his idiosyncratic vocals to collaborations with Clams Casino and BADBADNOTGOOD.
The band began writing new material in January 2016 on the coast of North Carolina, and continued throughout the year in Baltimore before road-testing these songs at a series of secret shows under fake names. Later that year, they travelled to Los Angeles to record with Grammy Award-winning producer John Congleton at the legendary Sunset Sound, where everyone from The Beach Boys to Prince have laid down masterpieces. With string and horn arrangements by Patrick McMinn, ‘The Far Field’ is the first Future Islands record to feature live drums by Michael Lowry, who joined the band prior to their sensational performance of ‘Seasons (Waiting On You)‘ on David Letterman’s late night TV show. Blondie‘s Debbie Harry also makes a guest appearance, in a duet with Herring on ‘The Far Field”s penultimate track, ‘Shadows’.
Across ‘The Far Field”s twelve chest-pounding love songs and odes to the road, Future Islands brilliantly expresses the band’s central theme they’ve been exploring for last decade: that there is power in emotional vulnerability, that one can find a way to laugh and cry in the same breath – and be stronger for it.
‘The Far Field’ is released worldwide on April 7th. It will be available digitally, on 180gm white vinyl and standard black LP, CD and cassette formats, and as a unique, first-of-its-kind miniature LP.
In July 2015, Future Islands celebrated the milestone of playing their 1,000th show, and the North Carolina natives will continue to add to that extraordinary figure this year with North American, UK and European tour dates, as well as festival appearances including Coachella, Bonnaroo and a headline set at Green Man.
FUTURE ISLANDS UK TOUR DATES: April 27 – GLASGOW, Barrowlands April 28 – LEEDS, University Refectory SOLD OUT April 29 – LIVERPOOL, O2 Academy SOLD OUT April 30 – BRIGHTON, Dome SOLD OUT May 2 – NOTTINGHAM, Rock City May 3 – BRISTOL, O2 Academy SOLD OUT August 17-20 – BRECON BEACONS, Green Man (headline)
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