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Concert Tue May 15 2007
West of the Fields
Bombastic choruses, space-rock progressions, and eccentric personalities - Brit pop, thy name is guilty pleasure. Unlike Muse or Travis or (gulp) Oasis, British rock newcomers Fields, while channeling a certain type of heart-on-its-sleeve, layered-haircut rock, do manage (for the most part) to raise above this easy Britpop designation on their freshman release Everything Last Winter. What they do sound like is more akin to early Idlewild - jangly pop-rock that stays away from balladry and focuses more on bringing the noise. That said, the group is still caught between a cultural music wave that trades high in bombast and low in inventiveness, evidenced by the tension between the unique chord progression and suggestive animated video for album opener "Song for the Fields," and the overt glam-fest, in both video and song, of album closer "If You Fail We All Fail." For those interested in working out the band's dialectics, see the videos for both songs below. For those just interested in seeing a good show, see Fields on their first stateside tour tomorrow night at The Empty Bottle. Show is at 9:30 and tickets are $10 advance, $12 at the door.
Fields - "Song for the Fields"
Fields - "If You Fail, We All Fail"