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.
Surrounded By Time is Jonesâ fourth leader in the U.K. and his first since 1999âs
Reload. He also becomes the first Welsh soloist to top the national chart in nearly a decade, since Marina and The Diamondsâ
Electra Heart, in 2012.
In a slow week for new releases, the next highest debut is an album familiar to many, John Lennonâs 1971 solo debut LP,
Plastic Ono Band (Apple Corps). The classic set enjoys a reissue rollout in various computations, blasting it to No. 11 on the weekly chart.
Further down the list, a campaign for The Whoâs third studio album
Tom Jones Heads For His First UK No 1 in Two Decades
Sir Tom Jones is on course for his first UK Number 1 album in two decades with Surrounded By Time.
Tom’s 41st studio album leads today’s Official Chart Update (April 26), racking up the most CD and download sales over the past weekend.
Surrounded By Time is on track to become Sir Tom’s fourth UK Number 1 album, and first chart-topper in over two decades, since Reload hit the top in October 1999. That album went on to claim two further weeks at Number 1 in 2000.
John Lennon occupies the runner-up slot at the halfway stage of the chart week with the 50th anniversary edition of first solo album Plastic Ono Band. Originally topping out at Number 8 in 1971, the collection is heading for a new peak of Number 2.
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Followers of Sunderlandâs Field Music â David and Peter Brewis and associates â revel in the bandâs on-beat, cerebral funk. Any simplification of their filigreed sensibility might be seen as dumbing down. But simplify is precisely what Field Music have done. Do Me a Favour is an out-and-out pop song with a 4/4 beat and simple chords elevated by the elasticity of the brothersâ twin falsettos. With a wry wink, the video for No Pressure literally breaks down the track for the listener.
The album from which these songs come â
Flat White Moon, the bandâs eighth â comes with all sorts of olive branches, dialling down the brothersâ more forbidding instincts and amping up their love of soft rock. Sweet Beatles harmonies and body-friendly time signatures are foregrounded; the bandâs unorthodox melodies come across as inspired, rather than as a secret handshake exchanged between initiates; much emo