Albums Of The Year: Number 15

Let's start with a quick game of Tyne & Wear indie scene musical connections. So Peter Brewis was, and still is in some photo captions (including those in Getty Images' archive), the drummer with the Futureheads, Barry Hyde has been in other bands with various members and their 1-2-3-Nul! EP was produced by David Brewis. Maximo Park's Tom English drums on the album. Most of the above have been part of the J Xaverre live band. Give us long enough and we'll come up with a connection to the Golden Virgins too, although Kubichek! might be a struggle. Such diagram drawing is the traditional way to open a piece on Field Music, but tells you nothing about what they sound like.

Actually, what do they sound like? Over the album they veer from Mr Blue Sky ELO to English Settlement XTC, La's harmonies with prog time signatures and at least two songs that seemingly take inspiration from Robert Wyatt's version of I'm A Believer. As much as they're thrown into the mix they don't sound like just another post-punk band, turning the guitar effects down and producing the sort of sound that would be dubbed Americana if it wasn't laced with local accents and British Invasion and psychedelic pop suss. All this begs an interesting philosophical question - is it now seen as too obvious to be in thrall to the Beatles and Pet Sounds? You never hear them explicitly mentioned any more even when their fingerprints are all over the evidence. Field Music is proof that not only it is something not to be ashamed of, but there are still more ways and means to utilise the core values in 2005 and create something fresh sounding.

LISTEN IN: You Can Decide
EXTRA FEATURE: Not a lot about, but at least they've talked to Gigwise