Future Islands have shared an inward-looking new single called ‘Glimpse’ – check it out below.
The song follows on from the band sharing their seventh studio album, ‘People Who Aren’t There Anymore’, at the start of the year.
Now, the standalone single marks another 2024 comeback for the band, and was recorded around the same time that the album was being made. It also comes alongside a trippy music video made by Jayla Smith, which captures both the feeling of being lost, as well as the determination to find out what comes next.
“I’ve been waiting for sleep / Down at the gallows / I’ve been praying for peace / Out in the shadows,” sings frontman Samuel Herring in the opening lines. “The pictures tossed in the fire / The memories lost, saved the wrong ones / We’ve been living a lie / In carrying on, where these souls stay hanged.”
In the song, the band capture the same ethereal, electronic sound that they honed in on their last album. The track also features a retro, synth-heavy melody, as well as Herring’s signature raspy vocals.
According to Under The Radar, the lyrics in the song represent “a family home burning down”, as well as the feeling of “coming to terms with the physical and emotional losses and coming to terms with the erasure of a collective history.” Listen to the song in full above.
Back in January, NME gave the Baltimore band a three-star review for ‘People Who Aren’t There Anymore’.
“There’s no question that Herring still writes songs capable of evoking strong emotions, but this time around they can occasionally feel too twinkly and repetitive. What’s missing is some risk-taking; unpredictable production flourishes that could better reflect the overall mood of the album and all the ambiguities that accompany a major life change,” it read.
“That’s why ‘People Who Aren’t There Anymore’ just falls short of its goal of becoming a transformative record for the band. It has its winning moments – ‘Iris’ pulls off a tricky balance of being irresistibly catchy and yet moving – but as big new beginnings go, Future Islands deliver a streamlined version.”
Currently, the band are embarking on their 2024 headline tour, in celebration of the LP. The remaining dates will see them play across the West Coast of the US and a number of shows in Canada, visit here for last-minute tickets.
