Field Music (Measure)

“Them that do nothing/ Make no mistakes,” proclaim the Brewis siblings on new album Field Music (Measure). This sentiment encapsulates the mindset of a duo ever ready to risk defeat rather than replicate past triumphs. It also explains why they once hinted at retiring Field Music and have spent the last few years on solo side projects: School of Language (David) and The Week That Was (Peter). However, despite the merits of their individual efforts, it’s cheering to hear them back in creative tandem.

Alternating between ennui, unease and unbridled joy, this double-disc, 20-song extravaganza is their most ambitious offering yet. Its daring-do indicates that Field Music are kindred spirits with prog-rock’s most fantastical practitioners.

However, this is anything but a prog album. It’s not ponderous enough for a start, and the songs zip by in two and three minute bursts, pithy and elegantly tailored. Orchestral zing adds to the high gloss of ‘Measure’, while ‘In The Mirror’ and ‘All You’d Ever Need To Say’ come on like Steely Dan.
Elsewhere, there’s definitely something of Prefab Sprout in the Anglo-pop DNA of ‘You And I’, whilst ‘Clear Water’, ‘See You Later’ and the use of found sounds suggests Pink Floyd-style whimsy.

Such déjà vu shivers are frequent, be it an echo of Genesis here, or the ghost of the Associates there. However, it’s the way that the Sunderland group stitch these fragments into the fabric of their own ever-expanding musical universe that makes this an album of breathless adventure.