Flat White Moon
Zara Hedderman
, May 19th, 2021 09:07
Sunderland s talented Brewis brothers are back with an album so good that its best bits remind Zara Hedderman of Bowie s songs for Labyrinth
“It might be a waste to wait around for certainty / When you could get better / If you take a step / In just one direction,” sing the brothers Brewis on ‘You Get Better’, the closing track of their eighth record,
Flat White Moon. A jaunty late-era Talking Heads fused arrangement brims with melodic personality and affirmations typically found on desk calendars decorated with illustrations of kittens clawing onto a branch. This proposition from the duo unconsciously presents an accurate analogy of Field Music’s most recent output. Here, the unexpected twists and turns scattered across their otherwise familiar soundscapes proffer the most intriguing aspects of the work.
Itâs a sunny morning in Sunderland and the Brewis brothers â David in the bandâs studio, Peter at home in his living room â have convened over Zoom to discuss what they call the first âproperâ album by their band since 2018.
The genre-defying duo have led Field Music since its inception in 2004, razing the landscapes of the indie, pop and art-rock worlds via an eclectic CV that encompasses numerous albums, soundtracks, concept albums and side projects. They even famously attracted the attention of Prince, who tweeted a link to their track The Noisy Days Are Over apropos of nothing in 2015, yet they remain one of the most consistently underrated bands in music. Nevertheless, theyâre now readying the release of Flat White Moon, their eighth studio album and the follow-up proper to 2018âs Open Here. In between, there was Making a New World in 2020, a concept-album of sorts about the aftermath of the first World War that was commissioned by th