Field Mouse - Hold Still Life
by Adrian Huggins
published: 12 / 8 / 2014
Label:
Top Shelf Records
Format: CD
intro
Fabulous, slightly unhinged 90’s-influenced indie guitar pop/rock on debut album from thoughtful young New York-based band, Field Mouse
Field Mouse took form around 2010 when vocalist Rachel Browne joined forces with producer and musician Andrew Futral after the pair met at SUNY Purchase. Later the two became four with the addition of Saysha Heinzman on bass guitar and Tim McCoy on drums. Together they make a wonderful noise that most would coin as dream pop, maybe shoegaze, maybe indie, basically whatever your preferred term would be for hook-laden and gentle guitar rock with a pop leaning. ‘Hold Still Life’ is the band’s debut full length offering, and is inspired by the wonderful tragi-comedy commonly referred to as the onslaught that is adulthood and “growing up”. They capture this sentiment beautifully and quite accurately with their combination of ever present melody, but always with a broody and unhinged edge running throughout. ‘A Place You Return to in a Dream’ notably addresses this notion wonderfully. Although the four piece reside and sing about their life in New York such as on ‘Horizon City’, there is a definite nod, be it coincidental or not, to the wave of late 80’s and 90’s British indie/Brit-pop bands. I think one could very un-embarrassingly think that tracks like ‘Happy’ and ‘Tomorrow Is Yesterday’ were in fact Sleeper singing a Manic Street Preachers B-sides – what a combination right! Striking that balance perfectly between those pop sensibilities and the raw noise of guitar and synth fuzz throughout, Field Mouse have captured the mood and feeling they were aiming for perfectly, a good soundtrack for all you late 20-somethings/immature 30-something year olds…and possibly a few of you above those age brackets that still hold a candle for that magic era of 90’s British guitar pop.
Track Listing:-
1 A Place You Return to in a Dream2 Tomorrow Is Yesterday
3 Two Ships
4 Everyone but You
5 Asteroid
6 Reina
7 Netsuke
8 Horizon City
9 Bright Lights
10 Happy
11 Kids
12 Water in the Valley
Band Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/fieldmousemusichttp://fieldmousemusic.com/
https://twitter.com/fieldmousemusic
Label Links:-
http://www.topshelfrecords.com/https://www.facebook.com/topshelfrecords
https://twitter.com/topshelfrecords
http://topshelfrecords.tumblr.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/topshelfrecords
https://instagram.com/topshelfrecords/
soundcloud
reviews |
Episodic (2016) |
Hook-laden retro rock from New York-based indie rockers Field Mouse on the burning hot Topshelf Records label |
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