Field Music – Plumb

Album number four from the brothers Brewis is a notable departure from 2010’s Measure, which, like its title denotes, was restrained by a more ‘classic’ songwriting structure. Plumb is a richly textured and many-layered display of musical wizardry. Songs go through so many different changes that it becomes difficult to keep track, with fragmentations that can sound a bit too much like the more demanding moments of Pink Floyd for these ears.

From Hide And Seek To Heartache is a dazzling highlight; it doesn’t try so hard to flit and change, but instead evolves through layered harmonies of piano with voices, strings and insistent percussion. The cyclical guitars of A New Town are spot on, too, and could be a subtle indie-dance hit – perhaps sitting nicely alongside longtime friends and collaborators The Futureheads. Plumb can otherwise present too many opposing themes for it to feel like a coherent journey.