Singles by Future Islands

Future islands, as singer Samuel T. Herring puts it, is a "performance art band" that attempts to "make music that makes us, and our fans, feel something”. Their new album, Singles, clearly met that goal.

The band is native to North Carolina: Herring and bassist William Cashon, the core of the band, met at ECU. Later joining them was Gerrit Welmers on the keyboard. Though Herring at one point put the band on hiatus as he dropped out of ECU due to a drug addiction, the band slowly recovered as they moved to Baltimore and began their first tour. Their second album, In Evening Air, is woven with Herring's personal turmoil, as he went through a "terrible breakup that was so, so sad." Four years later with Singles, Future Islands retains the booming heartfelt vocals from previous albums, and introduces more catchy synth chords than before.

Herring calls Cashon and Welmers his two best friends. The band has lived in Baltimore since the band members left ECU, Herring got rid of both his construction job and his drug addiction, and they performed at the Depot and fell in love with the energy of the city. Since then, the band has been touring relentlessly but calling Baltimore home.

Future Islands'performance of "Seasons (Waiting On You)" on The Late Show with David Letterman, however, encompassed in one song what the band is all about-- raw, unfiltered, human emotion. Herring won the audience over with his signature growls and earnest dance moves. The music video for the same song features cowboys doin' their thang-- riding horses, going to the rodeo, chilling in fields. It's pretty unclear what Future Islands intended to portray with this music video, with random, disconnected scenes but at least the scenic images are nice. The video for "A Dream Of You AndMe" features stop motion shells and nostalgic childish art projects-- like glittery pipe cleaners-- floating around the screen, which closely resembles the mild chaos of dreams. Herring also does solo hip-hop performances, which closely resemble a dad-going-through-a-midlife-crisis.

Herring, Welmers, and Cashion chillin' on some teeth

The intro song, "Seasons (Waiting on You)" kicks off the album with discoesque synth beats that repeat throughout the song. Herring's bellowing vocals, however, bring us back to 2014, as he sings of growing tired of waiting for the ambiguous "you". Paired with his frustrated dance moves like on The Late Show With David Letterman, the overall tone of this song is fed-up. The climax of the album is in "Fall From Grace", as Herring, overcome by a building rage that angsty teens and screamo music and probably the devil can relate to, wails "WAS IT ALL INSIDE OF ME." After a moment of fear, the song calms back down. The album as a whole parallels human emotion: the tension in a suppressed emotion, the obsession with a certain thought shown through repetition, the outburst, and the calm as a result of the outburst.