Brian Bird  | September 15,  2014

This review of Field Mouse's new album Hold Still Life marks the fourth time this year that I have covered a band that has recently undergone a growth spurt in its lineup, but one of the first time such a change brought a deep musical richness. Field Mouse started out in 2010 as a simple indie duo from Brooklyn that had a couple 7” EPs to its name. Hold Still Life is not only their first full length-album but is also their first release as a four-piece. It's a good thing that they waited too, as the songs on Hold Still Life cover such a mind-numbing variety of styles and genres that there is no way in hell that only two people could have pulled it off! This record 

sounds like a greatest hits compilation of a band that remained intact from the early 1980s through the mid-90s even while trying to invent new, label-defying styles. The founding members, Rachel Browne and Andrew Futral, are both great guitarists, but adding a rock-solid bassist in Saysha Heinzman and a wickedly adaptable drummer like Tim McCoy allows for a before-impossible range of musical possibilities.

 

What you really need to understand is just how important of a role Browne's vocals play in the overall scheme of their songcraft. All singers are important but Rachel takes it to the next level. First off, she has a multilayered voice that is reminiscent of Blondie’s Debbie Harry, Acquiesce’s Sarah Blasko and the Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler that she can adapt on a dime to give it anywhere from a saccharine sweetness to a breathy seductiveness. She also uses non-verbal vocalizations better than anyone since Freddie Mercury. The songs thus straddle the line between being instrumentally-focused and primarily driven by vocals. Rachel and Andrew use a dual rhythm guitar setup, most of the time which creates a genuine, analog wall of sound, especially when the synthesizers fill in the background noise.

 

One of the most noticeable things about Field Mouse’s stylistic blending is that exactly half of the twelve songs on Hold Still Life are under three minutes in length. One of those, “Kids”, is just shy of the two-minute mark -- this track serves as the perfect place to begin my review. There are really just two kinds of songs on this record. “Kids” is among those that would sound perfect playing on the jukebox in a bar where you sit alone, nursing a beer while also nursing a broken heart. The guitars are played in a classic Surf King style on what must be vintage Telecasters. Rachel's vocals are the focal point and she sounds very wistful while seducing your ears with teases like “Think it over / You've got no one else to see” that ring with an almost Susanna Hoffs level of innocent sexuality.

 

The perfect foil to “Kids” has to be “A Place You Return To In A Dream.” It opens with the screaming howl of piercing guitar akin to a British cop car with two tons of prescription-strength reverb. Tim might as well be playing with just a couple of snare drums and more cymbals than a Chinese circus. And while I’m describing the song’s atmosphere, I wish you good luck in trying to understand more than ten percent of the lyrics. Regardless of your success, Rachel has gone into full Debbie Harry mode and is using the tone of her voice as the instrument that clangs through the chaos. This is a song that you may want to listen to when you’re alone, but only so that you don't injure somebody while you jump and thrash about trying to break things that are within striking distance. Like any great punk-styled song from back in the day, there is no slow fade-out, just an abrupt ending that jars as if your roommate tripped over the power cord to your stereo. Field Mouse is definitely exhausted by the end of this song, and you should be as well if you experience it right. Welcome to the other end of the musical and emotional spectrum on Hold Still Life, folks.

 

“Tomorrow Is Yesterday” serves as a trip to the 90s grunge scene, especially to the female-led groups that had flourished in that era like L7 or Bikini Kill. Vocals are given a little more prominence in this track, but the song is clearly driven and supported by Sasha Heinzman's driving bass performance and steady, staccato-note drumming. The two-guitar setup seems more like a lead/rhythm pairing which fits the pace and supplies the mid-90s West Coast ambience that is quite hard to reproduce. More often than not, bands not of that era fail miserably, with their emulation efforts seeming hollow. However, If I had heard “Yesterday” on the radio in 1997 it would have felt natural to me at the time. This really is an accomplishment as Field Mouse is not just a one-dimensional band that only wants to cover a single style of music. I believe in my heart of hearts that if they decided to record an original polka track, it would most likely remind me of Bavaria a few seconds in.

 

“Two Ships” has a very Talking Heads feel to it and the very next song “Everyone But You” starts with vintage-sounding synth and a barebones drumbeat that is clearly an homage to R.E.M's “Radio Free Europe.” “Asteroid” revives the wonderful strumming bass style that I always felt has been under-appreciated and under-utilized while in “Happy,” Rachel really explores the possibilities of non-verbal vocal styling and is supported by guitars with boatloads of distortion and fuzz. Some of you might think that this stylistic sampler might be a bad thing, but I assure you, it is not. It’s possible that Saysha and Tim had new tastes they brought with them to the band. Perhaps the addition of two superbly gifted artists made Andrew and Rachel want to explore all the new possibilities. What I know for sure is what is important -- they pull off their intentions, whatever they may have been, with great aplomb. There is really not a single failure on Hold Still Life. It is an unbroken streak of #wins, in my opinion.

 

Given the wide array of styles they have at their command, I can, for now, only imagine how much fun they are to see live. It has to be ten times more fun than a kick in the head and if they get anywhere near my neck of the woods I will be there for both the music and the most assuredly entertaining scene.  As luck would have it, Field Mouse is currently on the first Topshelf Records Tour from now until the end of September that covers a good sized chunk of the East Coast and Midwest. I have found out that they hit Atlanta the third week of September, so I will be there as I refuse to be square.

 

Before I end my review, I would like to say that it is high time that those in the music industry stop creating nonsensical labels, styles, and genres to describe musicians and their sound. There are more than enough, and 97% of them overlap anyway. It becomes especially nerve-grating when you try to use one-word descriptors to define the sound of a band like Field Mouse, good and talented folks that seem to put a lot of effort into avoiding being pigeon-holed. If we are going to use terms like “shoegaze,” “proto-punk,” “dreamscape,” and “indie-pop” (the worst label), then I'm going to start using my own, made up descriptors. The next rap song I review will be labeled as a vegan-crunk, tub-fart, Beatles-on-meth masterpiece. A group as multi-layered as Field Mouse has the ability to blend or change up their musical tendencies six times in one song. Please don't stick them with a dumb-sounding label just so you can feel smart -- instead use real-life references and long-standing artistic examples to prove a point. Field Mouse will thank you.