eMusic Review 0
Future Islands make break-up records, but not the kind you associate with curling up in bed and crying in your beer. The times you just want nothing else than to howl at the moon? On the Water has got your back there. On their second LP, the Baltimore-based Wham City vets up the drama, softening — but not shedding — their rep as synth-toting live berserkers. Sam Herring’s vocals are still an acquired taste, inflating and braying like a bagpipe, but dispersed through On The Water are quietly resonant anthems like “Where I Found You,” “Before The Bridge” and “Balance”; songs that maintain a sonic shimmer and emotional sensitivity, and subtly align Future Islands with a lineage of luxurious, grown and sexy sophisti-pop ranging from Roxy Music’s Avalon to Destroyer’s Kaputt.
