Daily Dose: Field Music, “Count It Up”
The British sibling duo will return with their sixth album, Open Here, in February.
Music Features Field Music
Back on Nov. 7, the British art-rock duo Field Music (comprising brothers Peter and David Brewis) announced that their sixth studio album, Open Here, would be released Feb. 2, 2018, via Memphis Industries. On Tuesday, the duo shared the first single from the album, “Count It Up.”
“Count It Up” uses a deceptively fun Devo-esque synth lead and strutting cadence to soundtrack a series of entitlements that the listener should consider when taking stock of his or her privilege: “If you can go through day to day without the fear of violence, count that up / If people don’t stare at you in the street because of the color of your skin, count that up / If your body makes some kind of sense to you, count that up.”
David Brewis says the song was written on his young son’s toy keyboard in the wake of the Brexit vote in the UK. “I’ve been down and angry about the state of everything lately,” he says. “Our town [Sunderland] has become infamous in that it was the first place that voted for Brexit, and that threw into really stark relief loads of fears I have about where we live. It’s been a downtrodden place for quite a long time and people look for someone to blame.”
Open Here marks the follow-up to 2016’s Commontime, and is the latest in a run of five albums recorded in Field Music’s small riverside studio in Sunderland. An array of musicians were invited to contribute, including Sarah Hayes on flute and piccolo, Liz Corney on vocals, Pete Fraser (The Pogues) on saxophone, Simon Dennis on trumpet and flugelhorn, a Cornshed Sisters choir and the regular string quartet of Ed Cross, Jo Montgomery, Chrissie Slater and Ele Leckie.
Listen to “Count It Up” below, and find Field Music’s upcoming tour dates here.