Before becoming unlikely stars in 2014 on the back of frontman Samuel T Herring’s extraordinarily impassioned performance of Seasons (Waiting on You) on David Letterman’s show, Baltimore three-piece Future Islands had released four well-received albums of synth-driven indie. Their fifth doesn’t deviate greatly: Gerrit Welmers and William Cashion create lush soundscapes that owe much to the more muscular end of 80s AOR, while Herring adds the vocal bombast. Although they come close with the urgency of Ran and Cave, nothing here quite matches up to Seasons, but then that bar was set ridiculously high. There’s only one misstep: the slower Candles turns into a dispiriting trudge. Otherwise, The Far Field is another accomplished, engaging set.
