Fields--Everything Last Winter

One of the ultimate goals I’ve set up for myself in life is to find the perfect blend of shoegaze and alternative rock, as exemplified in a single band (which perhaps shows how trivial my life goals are). While few bands have auditioned for this most sacred role – Silversun Pickups, Dirty on Purpose, Butterfly Explosion, and even The Smashing Pumpkins to an extent – all have fallen short of my ever demanding expectations. Enter Fields.

Their debut full-length, Everything Last Winter, is a novella of rich musical works, clearly bearing the marks of a group obsessed with every last second of their art. Each song rounds out to five minutes, each like a mini-drama—carefully crafted to unravel like some proverbial Fruit-By-The-Foot. Only, instead of artificially injected flavors, Fields is an all-natural blend of alternative, indie, folk, and shoegaze roots. May sound like the makings for distasteful sonic gruel, but (for the most part) Everything Last Winter is exquisitely well-blended.

Like a Silversun Pickups injected with the somber emotions of Iron & Wine, or perhaps Belle & Sebastian mixed well with Ride (and a necessary voice-deepening), Fields delivers modest folk melodies on top of dramatic sonic landscapes that a good footwear-staring. “If You Fail We All Fail” and “Song for the Fields” show this off brilliantly…but unfortunately are the only peak-topping climaxes within Everything Last Winter. Other tracks like the wistful “Charming the Flames” and the brutally haunting “The Death” (“Not all men get buried alive / They fall apart before our eyes”) come close, but the remainders of the album do not live up to the expectations set by the scorching My Bloody Valentine guitars in “If You Fail We All Fail.”

Fields relies a little too heavily on their folk sensibilities rather than twirling experimentalism for my tastes—leaving my eternal quest for the perfected shoegaze/alternative band unfulfilled. That said, Everything Last Winter has still consumed my life—and I love it. It will envelope your life as well, just as surely as you too will love being surrounded by the modest folk and blistering shoegaze of Fields. Go. Buy. Now.

(Published at MusicEmissions.com)