Last year, Future Islands hit the road to promote their newest studio album release, People Who Aren’t There Anymore. At the New York City show at Radio City Music Hall, the new album clocked in with eight songs on the set list – more than double the amount of songs from the band’s celebrated album Singles. A tell tale sign that the future of Future Islands was looking bright.
I’ll slot the album within my Future Islands top three, claiming the third spot behind Singles and the seminal album On The Water where the band’s sound became more defined and more polished (in the good way). Like those aforementioned albums, People Who Aren’t There Anymore has a healthy balance of upbeat, downbeat and midtempo jams in between, like “The Thief”. Over time, it has become of my favorites from the 2024 album release. “The Thief” unassumingly switches up and down in intensity to give Herring’s vocals just enough emotional space to operate.
Like most Future Islands anthems, the synth arrangements are the key instrumental ingredients, featuring a stealthy, tip-toe entry, an icy riff that jumps into the middle of both the verses and choruses – and a shimmery, echoey finish. It’s the formula that makes Future Islands a band I can keep coming back to. On bass, simple octave jumps seem a little too expected, yet play the perfect accompanying role to Herring’s deceptively simple lyrics.
“BUT IF I SAID TOO MUCH, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. IT WOULDN’T BE THE FIRST TIME I’VE BEEN TOLD.”