Future Islands released their most recent album, “People Who Aren’t There Anymore”– and it is a strange expedition into what it means to move on. Future Islands released this album in January 2024, but it was written in 2020, when the band members were isolated and separated from one another.
The band is based in Baltimore and famous for their lack of a guitarist. They have continued working on perfecting their style, leading up to “People Who Aren’t There Anymore.”
The album is, overall, exceptional. The opener, “King of Sweden,” is about the singer telling someone that they are all he needs, even if that means doing strange things and having strange experiences. This song is a very excellent start to the album, establishing Future Island’s surrealist lyrics and musical style, which will remain prominent throughout the album.
Other standout tracks include “Deep in the Night,” a song about the turmoil of missing a loved one and not knowing when you might see them again, “Give Me The Ghost Back,” is the singer’s resolution that despite the heartbreak that he experienced, at least those experiences belong to him.
Probably the best exploration of these themes is the closer, “The Garden Wheel.” This song is about someone reflecting on their life, using the metaphor of a harvest to represent the reaping the consequences of one’s actions. The singer admits some regrets, but is overall satisfied with the fact that his life is his own and unique to the lives of others.
All of these songs were written during the COVID lockdowns, which put an end to lead singer and songwriter Samuel Herring’s long-distance relationship. All of the gratitude felt with that relationship and all the anguish of losing it all are so clear and really enrich Herring’s vocal delivery.
The very structure of the album, recontextualized with this motivation, is made even more genius. “King of Sweden” is the singer professing his love, and “The Garden Wheel” reflects the singer coming to terms with the fact that that same lover is gone, having taken the entire album to reach that closure. It’s a breakup album, but instead of hate-filled lyrics with a “you-didn’t-deserve-me-anyway” attitude, it takes a more mature view that looks outside of the relationship.
There aren’t any songs that are bad– each one is quite fun to listen to and worth your while. The main issue with this album is that all the songs sound very similar, using a very similar musical palette, speed and subject matter. So while listening to these songs is a wonderful experience, it can be difficult to listen to the album all at once without getting bored. Some of the songs that are right next to each other even have a tendency to sound similar. For example, “The Tower” sounds close to the song right before it, “King of Sweden.”
Until Future Islands releases their next album, this one will be sufficient to keep our ears pulsing to the sounds of synthesizers and Herring’s existential lyrics. As a whole, this new album is a stunning epic following a man’s acceptance of the loss of someone who isn’t there anymore.
