Future Islands - Wave Like Home

One of the most pleasantly strange & fascinating albums i've heard in a while has been the Future Islands CD on Upset the rhythm, 'Wave Like Home'. The write bendy, thrusting synth rock with galloping hooks and the wild, many hued vocals that occasionaly sound like the guy from The Walkmen having a raging excorcism. The grumbling bass underpins all these wild plateaus of synth. Track 6 especially reminds me of early Walkmen (as a lot of the arrangements & structure of these songs do!), the spectral synth washes flowing pensively over a an embryonic New Order rhythm section, brooding away with this hugely gruff and dramatic vocal. It's exciting new wave music with a contemporary twist. Some of the sounds wrestle nostalgic thoughts from my heart but it sounds really damn fresh & panoramic with a subtle progressive twist. It's both playful but deadly serious, kind of like how I wish bands like The Faint sounded. They've got more spirit in common with the dynamic art-punk of Les savy Fav to be honest. Closer Track 9 is an oddity, kind of like a warped soul ballad, his voice becoming more like Sam Cooke, wrapping itself round this strange atmospheric bontempi piece with some lovely bird noises pinging away in the background! I really love the myriad synths on this record, warm & fuzzy, eccentric, future-retro and deliciously varied. A distinctive and entertaining album, It's CD only on Upset the Rhythm