Today, Field Music are premiering the second single from their recently announced sixth full length album, Open Here (out via Memphis Industries on February 2nd, 2018). The track, entitled “Time In Joy,” typifies the album’s adventurous approach to off the wall pop music. Opening with a sparse collection of quietly oscillating synthesizers, the arrangement builds gradually with the support of a string section before bursting into a sparkling, prog-inflected “twitchy, oddly funky art pop” (Stereogum) track built around playfully interlaced flute and guitar lines.
As the band’s Peter Brewis tells Stereogum, the song is representative of the mindset Field Music attempted to foster while creating the album, refusing to succumb to the turmoil in their personal lives and the chaos in the world around them by maintaining a sense of “fun in the face of hardship.”
“People have a sort of romanticized idea of feelings that are painful or dark, that they are more meaningful, but when I’ve been through dark times, I find that there isn’t a lot of romance in that, that I function better and get more meaning out of positive experiences.” Peter says. “With some things that have been happening personally to us recently, and obviously the things happening in the wider world, there’s a kind of defiance in playfulness, and that’s what we were trying to capture with this song. It isn’t escapism, but it’s an attempt to confront those things with a deliberate sense of fun. Fun in the face of hardship. We set out to have a good time making this record, in spite of everything.”
Live Dates
02 Feb, Newcastle, Northern Stage
03 Feb, Newcastle, Northern Stage – Matinee Show
03 Feb, Newcastle, Northern Stage
05 Feb – Rough Trade East, London
06 Feb – Rough Trade Bristol
07 Feb – Rough Trade Nottingham
08 Mar, Brighton, Komedia
09 Feb – Resident Records, Brighton
09 Mar, Bristol, The Lantern
10 Mar, Southampton, Engine Rooms
11 Mar, Exeter, Phoenix
15 Mar, Birmingham, O2 Institute 2
16 Mar, Manchester, Gorilla
17 Mar, Glasgow, Saint Luke’s
22 Mar, Liverpool, Arts Club
23 Mar, Sheffield, Foundry
24 Mar, Norwich, The Waterfront
05 Apr, Antwerp, Trix
06 Apr, Amsterdam, Melkweg
07 Apr, Paris, Flow
25 May, London, Barbican w/ the Open Here Orchestra
