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Tones of Town | 
| Artist: Field Music
Label: Memphis Industries
Category: Music
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £4.98
You Save: £3.01 (38%)
New (10) Used (4) from £4.59
Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 17644
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
EAN: 5050954151322
ASIN: B000JFXTVI
Release Date: January 22, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Give It Lose It Take It | | • | Sit Tight | | • | Tones Of Town | | • | House Is Not A Home | | • | Kingston | | • | Working To Work | | • | In Context | | • | Gap Has Appeared | | • | Closer At Hand | | • | Place Yourself | | • | She Can Do What She Wants |
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 I'm sorry, i genuinely don't like this May 12, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Quite frankly, it's boring. It is a pleasant pop record featuring violins and a marginally interesting vocalist. I got bored after 4 tracks and I certainly don't regard Field Music as pioneers of music. Not very impressed and others seem to hype them along with far better, more original bands
 Pristine pop March 13, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Field Music is one of the most underrated Britpop bands since... well, one of the most underrated Britpop bands ever. Their self-titled album last year was one of the musical highlights.
And in "Tones of Town," the Sunderland band manages to top their debut, with a nearly flawless collection of catchy, warm, colourful pop music, cobbled out of squiggly synth, drums and angular guitars. Everything is tighter, more polished, and more musically adept.
It opens with what sounds like a restaurant -- dishes clattering, voices conversing, general hubbub. As that dies away, a chiming melodiy grows louder and louder, with some bouncy, gritty electric guitars joining in.
And it blossoms into "Give It Lose It Take It," a peppy, sunny confection made of squiggly synth, angular guitars and the occasional wave of strings. "Give it away/Nothing's worth keeping that you can't say/Lose it, strip yourself down/Its giving away can always be found/All that you have is all that you need to be!" Peter and David Brewis croon.
They follow that with the rich, beatboxy pop of "Sit Tight" and the swirling tambourine-guitar pop of the title track. What comes after it is a string of deliciously endearing pop tunes -- sprightly pianopop riddled with violin and guitar, mellow ballads, funky guitarpop, synth-riddled rockers, and other layered tunes that will surely have you bouncing in your chair.
Whatever was good about Field Music's music in their first album is multiplied in this one -- the lyrics, the music, and the general feel have all gotten better. The music was fun guitarpop with some flourishes before, but now it's made up of dense little packages of catchy pop, woven together out of outstanding instrumentation.
But despite the deliciousness of the music, there's a vague feeling of discontent in these lyrics. The Brewis Brothers don't complain outright -- they're too bright to try the "poor li'l me" approach -- but their lyrics feel as if they yearn for something more, and don't know what it is exactly.
It's a direct counterpoint to the music, which is a sparkling collection of very tight, very polished little pop tunes. The angular little guitar riffs are wrapped in plenty of squiggly, sunny keyboard (courtesy of Andrew Moore), an occasional tambourine shake, lots of rippling piano, and some rapid-fire drums that add a rock edge to the sunny pop.
And Brewis does a good job balancing between the sunny music and wistful lyrics. His voice is strong and smooth, and he can murmur out those songs without sounding depressing. "Oh and you're a long way from home/All of the thoughts you had were not your own/Even the time you came was somebody else's time/But you're alive between the lines..."
Field Music churn out a brilliant second album in "Tones of Town," with its wistful songwriting and beautifully complex pop melodies. Absolutely a must-listen... and who knows what they'll come up with next?
 Bright and breezy February 12, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I thought A House Is Not A Home was quite brilliant. The problem of course is that you always worry that a brilliant single doesn't always translate into a brilliant accompanying album. Fears seems to rescind when a plethora of five-star reviews surfaced for Tones Of Town and whilst I would not go as far as to agree wholeheartedly with those "amazing" reviews, the album is still well worth a listen.
Despite the obvious "Englishness" of the sound, there is more of a West Coast USA feeling to the tunes. Indeed one could almost label it The Kinks meet The Beach Boys, although that would certainly be giving it too much credit in terms of reaching the quality of those acts.
The majority of the album provides bright, breezy pop with melodies that instantly stick in your brain. Particular highlights, alongside A House Is Not A Home, include In Context (with it's starting drum beat that brings to mind Nelly Furtado's Maneater!) and Give It Lose It Take It, one of the album's more boisterous moments.
It doesn't always work however; Sit Tight is especially disappointing, being a less effective retread of A House Is Not A Home with the human beatbox interlude being almost laughable. Still these moments are pleasingly few and for the most part this is a delightful album, albeit a one paced one. It's pleasant more than anything else although there are moments which lift it above that less than flattering description. It's unlikely to blow your mind but you will enjoy the experience whilst it lasts.
Tones Of Town should be talk of the town January 28, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Field Music are one of those bands that have been hovering around the periphery of my perception for some considerable time with out piquing my interest enough to make me part with hard earned cash in order to find out what the fuss was all about. Until now that is.
The Sunderland trio's second album, not including a collection of rarities and b-sides, shows that all the talk of their jittery rhythms and disjointed arrangements set to juicy pop hooks and lustrous vocal harmonies was no exaggeration. Songs like "Sit Tight"," Working To Work " and recent single "In Context" all showcase the bands multivariate take on pop , with drum loops , choppy strings , regimented percussion and staccato piano filigrees juxtaposing the melodies and vocal synchronization. If it all sounds too clever by half maybe it is, but it's done with such bravura, and instinctive grasp of pops effortless potential to communicate loftier ideals and ideas that it's hard to resist. For instance "A House Is Not A Home" is a superb elliptical version of American FM radio rock but with lyrics of quiet desperation and urban alienation - a theme that runs throughout the album- that belie the breezy feel good ambience of the song. "Giver It Lose It, Take It" revels in Beatles pop audaciousness while "Closer At Hand" has the most gorgeous acappella opening on a song for some considerable time...well since the Ooberman album anyway.
This is seriously impressive music in both senses of the word. The band takes it seriously, though undoubtedly have fun while doing so. This is shown on songs like "Kingston " and "Working To Work" which lament the onset of capitalism while grudgingly acknowledging that compared to some we have little to complain about. You can argue that point but what is in no doubt is that this is a superior album of fractured literate and intelligent pop. "Tones Of Town "should be talk of the town and I should have investigated Field Music earlier.
Flawless Follow up, almost. January 27, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Originality is the best hint to finding good music, when the world hears something different, a few months later, everyone's talking about it. Field Music were hyped up by the likes of NME as just another Futureheads, with less catchy songs, but they've hit down this negative image like a brick through the window. "Tones of Town" could not be any more original, the fuse of Britpop chords, joyful melodies and dare I say it, beat boxing could not work better. They've given it everything they've got and my oh my, they've done something special.
"Sit Tight" is a song to surpass any doubts about this band as to whether they can follow up their consistent debut with a better album, as does opener "Give It Lose It Take It". In an album than has so much depth to it, it takes as least 10 listens to fall for it, the opening two tracks rise to the back of your head instantly. 2 and a half minutes into "Sit Tight" and there is the pleasant sound of beat boxing and piano, that's something that I thought I'd never say. In fact this album surpasses any doubts any one could have about anything with this band. The peerless single "A House Is Not A Home" brings back the memories of the only 90's music that you could consider being any good, with sublime harmonies and ever-so-cool careless guitar riffing gradually bringing the song into its comfort song, the song changes every 30 seconds into a completely different verse/chorus/bridge and each one is better than the other. Unfortunately this isn't an album to listen to when you've got home from a stressful day at work, you have to literally concentrate when you listen to it, because there is always something special lurking somewhere in each song, a feeling of mystery, a hidden instrument, always somewhere, and as a listener, you tend to feel that it's your goal to find it.
"In Context" sounds like a brutal and successful attempt to place the band ahead of the likes of Maximo Park and Futureheads in the ranks of power-pop legends, it's a song that make you truly think about how much potential is reeking out of this band, and how wonderfully they're using it, they know they've got it, and they're sensibly flaunting it.
The dashing "She Can Do What She Wants" almost reminds you of the phenomenon that surrounded The Beatles, they sound like a band with such a fresh spirit and the closer on the album has a chorus to make you close your eyes for a few seconds and remember the best times of your life, it's not a life changing song, but it is for a couple of minutes.
Exquisite vocals flow through the whole of the record, not just on the lead vocals, everything is at perfect harmony, it feels like this record has been planned for years ago and has been tweaked about with until perfection for a decade almost. Having said that, this album is not perfection, it's pop perfection.
There is not a single poor or even average song on this album, there are only a couple of songs that come across worse than others but overall, the whole thing's perfect pop that should keep you busy for the next few months. No other band can truly change the way that we see punk-pop music in the future as much as this band. An essential independant album if there ever was one.
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