Future Islands have shared a video for their latest single, ‘Ran’. Filmed by Albert Berney, it centers around the restless vocalist Samuel T. Herring in motion, running through Baltimore and Maryland’s countryside. The single is from their fifth studio album, The Far Field, out on 7th April via 4AD / Remote Control Records.
The Far Field refines and builds on the breakthroughs of their 2014 album Singles, bursting with undeniable hooks and disarmingly honest lyrics written by Samuel T. Herring (vocals, lyrics), William Cashion (bass, guitars) and Gerrit Welmers (keyboards, programming).
The band began writing new material in January 2016 on the coast of North Carolina, and continued throughout the year in Baltimore before road-testing these songs at a series of secret shows under fake names. Later that year, they travelled to Los Angeles to record with Grammy Award-winning producerJohn Congleton at the legendary Sunset Sound, where everyone from The Beach Boys to Prince have laid down masterpieces. With string and horn arrangements by Patrick McMinn, The Far Field is the first Future Islands record to feature live drums by Michael Lowry, who joined the band prior to their sensational performance of ‘Seasons (Waiting On You)’ on David Letterman’s late night TV show. Blondie’s Debbie Harry also makes a guest appearance, in a duet with Herring on penultimate track‘Shadows’.
Across The Far Field’s twelve chest-pounding love songs and odes to the road, Future Islands brilliantly expresses the band’s central themes they’ve been exploring for the last decade: that there is power in emotional vulnerability, that one can find a way to laugh and cry in the same breath – and be stronger for it.
The Far Field is released worldwide on 7th April. It will be available digitally, on 180gm white and standard black LP, CD, cassette formats and as a unique, first-of-its-kind miniature LP.