Tracks
Futureheads: "Area"
(2006)
By Conrad Amenta | 24 January 2008
Trying to interpret “Area” is about as easy and useful as looking for significance in the post-3AM monotone of Channel One. The protagonist has “to sleep in a hotel” because his or her “area was in ruin,” and “lasers” that “pick up movement in the dark” are “better than a dog bark,” and that’s about as much as I can piece together here. But, as with pretty much every Futureheads song you’ve heard so far, none of that matters. The only lyric you’ll get to know is “doo-doot-do-doot-doot” because it’ll be stuck in your head for a fucking week.
Big things have been promised regarding the forthcoming Futureheads album, the follow up to their infectiously likeable self-titled debut. The band has gone out on a limb to say that they’ve been more “experimental,” which is what pretty much every band says about an upcoming sophomore release. (Look for the third album to be a “return to form.”) For its part, the UK-only Area Pt. 2 single reveals nothing: the title track, along with two sister newbies, are single-only tracks that aren’t planned for the new LP. But “Area” is a pop-perfect combination of adrenaline-heavy melody and how-do-they-do-it musical dexterity, and it inspires, all on its own, the same kind of lightheaded sing-a-longs, wild anticipation and Amazon.com ordering that the band’s debut did. The ascending/descending central hook, coupled with Barry Hyde’s nonsensical ramblings, might imply that this is “just” sugar-frosted post-punk, and it probably is. Still, it’s on par with anything the band has done before, and assuages any hesitancy on the part of the listener with unapologetic enthusiasm and pure skill.
The band would have us believe that they’ve locked and loaded something high-concept or musically ambitious for their follow-up, and this might be the reason that “Area” lands on its own purgatorial single between albums when it’s easily good enough to be the lead-off for most albums. But at this point in the listen, one is prone to saying screw it, lads: if the formula you’ve got in hand yields songs like this, as throw-aways no less, it may as well be a license to print money.
Big things have been promised regarding the forthcoming Futureheads album, the follow up to their infectiously likeable self-titled debut. The band has gone out on a limb to say that they’ve been more “experimental,” which is what pretty much every band says about an upcoming sophomore release. (Look for the third album to be a “return to form.”) For its part, the UK-only Area Pt. 2 single reveals nothing: the title track, along with two sister newbies, are single-only tracks that aren’t planned for the new LP. But “Area” is a pop-perfect combination of adrenaline-heavy melody and how-do-they-do-it musical dexterity, and it inspires, all on its own, the same kind of lightheaded sing-a-longs, wild anticipation and Amazon.com ordering that the band’s debut did. The ascending/descending central hook, coupled with Barry Hyde’s nonsensical ramblings, might imply that this is “just” sugar-frosted post-punk, and it probably is. Still, it’s on par with anything the band has done before, and assuages any hesitancy on the part of the listener with unapologetic enthusiasm and pure skill.
The band would have us believe that they’ve locked and loaded something high-concept or musically ambitious for their follow-up, and this might be the reason that “Area” lands on its own purgatorial single between albums when it’s easily good enough to be the lead-off for most albums. But at this point in the listen, one is prone to saying screw it, lads: if the formula you’ve got in hand yields songs like this, as throw-aways no less, it may as well be a license to print money.