These New Puritans - Field of Reeds

  by Paul Waller

published: 12 / 7 / 2013

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Southend-On-Sea’s These New Puritans previous album ‘Hidden’ may have been NME’s Album of the Year for 2010 but listening to it in full was the sonic equivalent of fighting a war, with each track being a new battle to contemplate and study in order to finally become the victor. This was to be expected though; what with the album centring on the bombastic ‘Attack Music’, the accolade was one they thoroughly deserved. It was a grand effort in both sound and scope and one which had both the musicians and audience wondering where in the hell the band might go to next. The next step it turns out is ‘Field of Dreams’, an all-round quieter folly for us fans to revel in. There is ridiculous ambition and a cinematic palette within the grooves that the band has kept in place from their previous outing, but each song appears to be piano led in some shape or other with horns and strings sweeping up the casual listener in multiple directions until it all gets quite samey, a cause that’s not helped by singer Jack Barnett who tends to mumble his vocals and when they do become distinct he likes to bury them in the mix, This isn’t pop music, folks, or. as I said to my dad, this isn’t folk music, pops. No, instead we get ‘The Light in Your Name’ which, whilst orchestrally vast doesn’t truly spark to life until the final minute when the drums begin to roll and six songs in a piece of cinematic incidental music in the shape of ‘Nothing Else’ will simply turn most newbies off. Five listens is not enough. Jesus, I still can’t get my head around it all on the tenth listen but I have to admit that I sort of love it. The record works extremely well as a singular piece and it’s just as an invigorating listen as its predecessor, but the battle has already been won. ‘Field of Reeds’ finds These New Puritans standing on a hill reflecting on the carnage below them. It’s poignant, touching and quite the surreal listen but once again it leaves us thinking just what the hell are they going to do next.

Track Listing:-

1 This Guy's In Love With You
2 Fragment Two
3 The Light In Your Name
4 V (Island Song)
5 Spiral
6 Organ Eternal
7 Nothing Else
8 Dream
9 Field of Reeds

Band Links:-

http://www.thesenewpuritans.com/
https://www.facebook.com/TheseNewPuritans
https://twitter.com/tnps
https://www.youtube.com/user/thesenewpuritans
https://www.instagram.com/thesenewpuritans/

Label Links:-

http://www.infectiousmusicuk.com/
https://www.facebook.com/infectiousmusicuk
https://twitter.com/Infectious_uk
https://www.youtube.com/user/infectiousmusicuk
https://vimeo.com/infectiousmusic

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