Given how many press releases are about going through the same motions, it’s nice to get something a bit different for a new single (especially if it’s for a band that you like, as well). A couple of days ago, I was sent over the new Field Music single, and it’s a corker as you might expect.
The band’s new album is called Making A New World and it’s out on January 10. It’s a 19 track song cycle about the after-effects of the First World War. But this is not an album about war and it is not, in any traditional sense, an album about remembrance. There are songs here about air traffic control and gender reassignment surgery. There are songs about Tiananmen Square and about ultrasound. There are even songs about Becontree Housing Estate and about sanitary towels.
The first single is reminiscent of prime Talking Heads, ‘Only In A Man’s World’ is out today and it’s the track about sanitary pads.
In the words of the band’s David Brewis: ‘ I found myself
At every stage of making this song, I had to ask myself, am I allowed to do this? Is it okay to do this? And I cringed in the next room when I first showed it to my wife. But I think confronting my own embarrassment is a pretty fundamental part of what the song is about.”
The band will be on tour in February 2020:
February 1 – Glasgow Kelvingrove Art Gallery
February 21 – Nottingham Recue Rooms
February 22 – Leeds Brudenell Social Club
February 27 – Whitley Bay Playhouse
February 28 – Manchester Dancehouse
February 29 – London