Field Music
Field Music (Measure) (disc 1)

I look at her, and in her eyes, it's all already there. Some might say defeat, but I wouldn't be so drastic.

Maybe it's routine. Maybe a spirit of adaptation. Perhaps what's missing is ambition. Love isn't missing, that I know. We could have been (should have been?) the most beautiful couple in the world - beautiful, especially thanks to her - the smartest, the most sarcastic, the couple with the most attitude of them all. We had all the right cards, people around us had great hopes for us when it all began, a few years ago. Then daily life, passion that fades, it doesn't disappear, but it normalizes, there you go.

But let's focus on ambition. Because that's the key word. In reality, we never were ambitious. What we want is to live in peace. To settle into the flow of dinners in quiet silence, but that pleasant, relaxing silence that doesn't create embarrassment, that doesn't make you think "damn, I need to say something brilliant." That's our couple's balance. We don't have sex three times a day anymore like in the beginning, but it's okay. Now there's quality.

However, the Brewis brothers, they are ambitious. They have the arrogance of the British, the truth in their hands. They play all the instruments, they do (almost) everything themselves. They come up with a double album (20 songs, almost 70 minutes of music) that's a slap in the face of all the indie-rock-pop-prog stuff that came out in the last 5 years. Seriously, listen to your uncle geb and gift yourself this album. 5 stars are not enough.

Find me another group that can better combine than Field Music instrumental skill, melody, arrangements, harmonic solutions, rhythms that are regular only for those with ears covered in ham. They say they're too indebted to XTC, and maybe that's true. But there's so much here. First of all: prog-pop watercolors of 2 and a half minutes ("Something Familiar", "The Wheels Are In Place"), power-pop bombs à la Kinks ("Effortlessly") violins crossing in psychedelic rock jams ("It's About Time") quirky college rock in British sauce ("Clear Water"), Supertramp hopped up on coke meeting the Flaming Lips ("The Rest Is Noise"), robot-kraut funk that melts knees ("Let's Write A Book", track of the year). Above all, a very well-calibrated production, with a very analog sound, very much in the moment, despite the songs being full of instruments, even symphonic ones. The tracks slide into each other, creating a flow that will carry you away. Believe me, I could go on for much longer. Rarely, in recent years, have I found so many ideas in a single album. All on point, all well thought out. Album of 2010.

I don't know if the Brewis brothers will normalize their approach to music in the future, just as we have with our relationship. But I don't think so. They are ambitious.

We, on the other hand, are calm, simple people.