Album Of The Week: Future Islands Singles

One of my favorite tropes in pop music is the readymade greatest-hits album, the album so packed with perfectly crafted pop nuggets that every one of its tracks seems destined for airplay. There aren't too many of these albums, but they all feel earthshaking when they come along: Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Def Leppard's Hysteria, Michael Jackson's Bad, Adele's 21, the first half of the Killers' Hot Fuss. The most remarkable thing about Taylor Swift's run is that every one of her albums could conceivably fit the definition. On a song that only appeared as a bonus track on his last album, Drake said, "My latest shit is more like a greatest-hits, goddam," and he wasn't actually telling the truth, though Take Care wasn't too far off. I don't for a second believe that Future Islands, an arty Baltimore synthpop trio who were still playing DIY spaces a few months ago, are aiming for that sort of cultural ubiquity on their new album. But in naming that album Singles, the band is sending a message: That these are all fully developed songs, that they are songs that deserve to soundtrack moments in your life, that will sneak up on you when you don't expect them. They are swinging for the fences with this one. And they are connecting.