This is the woman that crushed the heart of Noah and the Whale front man Charlie Fink, as was so obviously displayed on their 2009 album The First Day of Spring.

It's easy to see why he was so affected by the breakup... she is not only phenomenally gifted in voice, but she has a true talent for tapping into the classical songwriter vein that morphs this album from being simply another modern retread of vintage sounds and themes to sound like it was recorded long ago and been a lost classic, lusted after by collectors of obscure vinyl and remembered by modern listeners with an air of awe and reverence.

It has it's slower points that drag at times, but these can be easily forgiven due to the effect the entire album has upon the listener.  Marling will hopefully continue to grow into her status as a modern day songwriting heroine on future albums, but for now, I Speak Because I Can, has already cemented a place of acclaim in the current scene.

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You wander down the beaten concrete path of a dimly lit, brick-lined alley; intently following the vibrations of a fuzzy bass that is barely audible, but which still manages to roll around heavily in your chest cavity.

Drops of dirty rainwater slip off of the side of a sheet-metal roof onto your head as you reach a corroding dumpster with a small window hovering above. The music is louder: muffled, raspy vocals can be distinctly heard between the sounds of the cars passing by the entrance to the alley.

You hoist yourself up onto the dumpster, staining your palms orange with damp rust. Steadying yourself against the brick wall, you come up to your full height and gaze through the window into the poorly lit room below. Several lamps giving off slightly different shades of cream silhouette the steel columns holding up the empty warehouse and cast harsh shadows on the faces of the band who are gathered in the middle of the room.

You push the window open and the sound rushes out; it’s still not quite clear thanks to the lack of a proper PA or sound system, but it has such immediacy that you don’t even seem to notice. Despite the precarious foundation upon which you are currently standing, you begin to move your body with the beat and smack your hand against the side of your thigh in rhythm.

The music feels like something you’ve heard before, which helps you to forget about the occasional gusts of wind that prick up the hairs on your arms. The consistency with which the band propels itself forward is slowed only by the occasional break between songs; time filled with the lighting of cigarettes and deep swallows of brown-bottled beer.

Before you know it, the band stops playing for good and the lights go down to black. You jump down onto the buckling pavement and walk home. You have a hard time picking out one track from another as the music plays over in your mind, but despite this, you can’t help but feel that you’ve heard something special.

You only wish you could hear it again.

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Turn the record back over to side one, start the turntable, and put the needle on the soon to be well worn grooves.

Buy the album at itunes here:

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Field Music have always been an act that has kept its audience on their toes; whether it be releasing a huge catalog of albums, b-sides, and one-off singles in rapid succession, a rather abrupt announcement of the need for the band to take an indefinite “break”, or the announcement and quick release of a double album with almost no hint that anything was in the Field Music pipeline.

Measure, the aforementioned double album, maintains the Brewis brothers ability to keep their fans guessing with an absolute wealth of music. Although the announcement of the double album brought initial elation on my part, it was quickly followed up by a sneaking suspicion that Field Music’s style might not translate well to a longer playing album. Their knack for constructing pop-rock gems with more moving parts than a Thomas Pynchon novel works beautifully in a normal length album because they are really packing in a double-album’s worth of music and ideas into a single album, but a double-album could very well have been the aural equivalent of attempting to jam fourteen people into a compact car for a karaoke night.

In the end, Measure does indeed fall victim to the excess of its creators, but not because the music is not up to their usual, exceptionally high standards. Instead, Measure simply becomes an album that is quite difficult to properly listen to in one sitting due to its nearly overwhelming trove of melodies and musical flourishes.

That said, David and Peter Brewis have still managed to create a work of beauty with enough moments of clarity and genius to firmly put Measure in contention for album of the year consideration and the musical ‘curve’ associated with the album should in no way dissuade anyone from buying a copy of the album and enjoying it for what it really is: a work of musical art that shows Field Music stretching themselves to the breaking point on genre-bending works of metered precision.

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Although they can be categorized in the same vein as fellow indie-rockers and sub-pop label mates Rogue Wave, Helio Sequence dial up a bit more of the dreamy on Keep your Eyes Ahead, juxtaposing stuttering, dance-hall drumbeats with space-rock guitars and enough reverb-soaked vocals to make Kevin Shields or Andy Bell (of Ride, not Pulp) proud.

The work really stands out when The Helio Sequence are driving themselves full throttle forward in such songs as the ridiculously catchy “Can’t Say No”, album opener “Lately”, and “Keep Your Eyes Ahead”. “Shed Your Love” and “Broken Afternoon” showcase the alt-country side of the band and give the album some introspection as well as periods of tenderness which help to illuminate the highs of the more up-tempo songs.

“Hallelujah”, one of the catchiest songs to come out of 2008 thus far, is what really makes the album a winner, though. Its electronically pulsating bass, backbeats, and perfectly layered vocal harmonies catapult the album into new heights and firmly drop Keep Your Eyes Ahead on the shortlist of the year’s best albums.

8/10

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