Future Islands have released a new one-off single, “Peach,” marking their first music of 2021.
The song carries the Baltimore quartet’s trademark synth-pop sound, but on a mellower level than usual. Lead vocalist Samuel T. Herring describes a timely aura of doom (“Death is in the season/And it’s pushing me around”) before resolving to hold onto hope: “But I’m not giving up/Not today.”
“Peach” follows the band’s sixth studio album, As Long As You Are, released last year following their 2017 LP The Far Field. Future Islands will hit the road for a U.S. tour, The Calling Out in Space Tour, next month, kicking off September 1st at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. The tour runs for 32 dates, including a set at New York’s Governors Ball Festival on September 24th and shows with Modest Mouse and Hinds, and concludes October 14th at the Anthem in Washington, D.C. The U.K. and European run is set to follow in 2022.
Back in January, the band shared a performance from Baltimore’s Carroll Baldwin Memorial Hall as part of NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concert series, while the band also recently contributed to 4AD’s covers compilation, Bills and Aches and Blue. Herring also contributed vocals to DJ Shadow’s 2020 single, “Our Pathetic Age.”
VIDEOS
Aesop Rock raps like not many others can and he's asking outsiders to "Send Help" for those that can't on his latest single. Well, he's not actually doing that, but he's definitely lyrically stunting on everyone on it. It's the second offering from his next thematic adventure, Black Hole Superette.
It's due out on May 30 and will try to successfully follow up on his 2023 masterclass that is Integrated Tech Solutions. This will then end his longest drought of not dropping a project in nearly a decade. From 2016 until 2019 was the length of that gap. However, he did make a soundtrack all by himself in 2017 for the film Bushwick.
The other track that Aesop Rock treated us to was "Checkers" back in early April. Black Hole Superette "delves into the invisible forces that shape our lives and psyches. It’s about the small, often overlooked moments—the everyday experiences that blur the lines between the real and the unreal, waking and sleeping."
If there's anyone who can make the mundane feel interesting and intricate, it's Aesop Rock. But as we alluded to earlier, "Send Help" feels more like one big rhyme flex. But it's done with needlepoint precision. "Pigeon on my shoulder like a goth Rio / The putdown Picasso here to un-massage the ego / I'm friend or foe depending on the content in your keynote / And not above the lobbing of a rotten tomatillo." Spin it below.
Quotable Lyrics:
Whodunnits and cozy mysteries, who stole the crypt keys
Who showed the minions to the minced meat, it was me
Hut-hut, helmet off, blitz the whole bitstream
Override the A/V in, with A/V out the in-between
IV in, one of Epi, onе of Ralph Steadman
Phoebe Judgе, EPMD, The Amazing Kreskin
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