STREAM: These New Puritans - Field Of Reeds

Words: Ella Smith

Jack Barnett is renowned for making These New Puritans stand alone within their musical genre, and so far, he has been rather successful in doing so. With the success of their 2010 NME Album of The Year, ‘Hidden’s marriage of murky profundity and vehement drew in inquisitive listeners, which permitted them to intrude into Barnett’s hidden gem. With the audience’s self-assured trust, the gloomy haze follows us on ‘Field Of Reeds’; their opener ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’ automatically drifts us away from the commonality of contemporary music and excels us to These New Puritan’s forlorn island.

Once alone, the eerie and hauntingly beautiful ‘Fragment Two’ grabs us, a song that holds a child-like nursery rhyme-esque piano and heavy bass paired with harmonizing vocal exquisiteness at its foundation. This is arguably where These New Puritans come into their own, if any other band were to tackle such incongruity, vast contradictions would quite possibly transpire.

Field Of Reeds, much like their other records, is an album that needs as much time to listen to as it probably did to make. ‘Sprial’s nervy layered vocals into jingly ‘Organ Eternal’ only leaves you wanting something more from These New Puritans, something that will either make you jump out of your skin or hit you right to the core. This is something that doesn’t quite happen; yet the mouthful of darkness that Barnett unwillingly serves you is doubtlessly enough.

Stream the full album right here: