School of Language

Sunderland’s Field Music always seemed like one of those bands that wrote records for music critics and discriminating pop nerds rather than your average Klaxon-huffing indie fan. They made playful pop music that was tuneful rather than hooky, referencing an array of different genre touchstones and dabbling in concepts instead of the "she loves me nots” of the college rock circuit. Field Music, as we know them, has dissolved, so the individual members can focus on their own projects. Enter School of Language, the product of Dave Brewis. Described as a companion piece to Field Music’s lovely 2007 offering, Tones of Town, it lives up to its description. Even if Brewis solo is a bit darker and more subdued than his band mates, he hasn’t lost any of his playfulness. The hilariously titled "Rockist” parts one to four are testament to this, where he uses a bed of clipped phonemes ("aah, aah, eeh, eeh, oh, oh”) as a rhythm track. Elsewhere, the Field Music fingerprints are thankfully very much intact ("Marine Life,” "This Is No Fun”). A tad predictable, yes, but even a casual Field Music fan would be well advised to pick this solid effort up.