Field Music

Field Music aren't an easy band; they usually cram so many ideas into their songs that it can be a little jarring for newcomers. Those who have persisted and learned to love them do so because of all their idiosyncrasies. Fourth album Plumb finds them not making many changes to their prog-y pop songs, but it's their first record that works well as a whole. Plumb is a rich, complex album, with the songs spilling over into each other. It might lack the immediacy of its predecessor, but it more than delivers once all of its intricacies are sorted. It's the record they've been building towards for some years ― a mixture of imaginative, fragmented interludes and jittery pop songs that recall XTC at the height of their power ― but there's much more control than they've had in the past. It doesn't feel laboured or wilful; it's simply what Field Music have become and they're all the better for it.