Right, I’ve got my calculator at the ready and a strong mug of black coffee ready to tackle the new Field Music album, the finest pastoral English Art-school pop band of our generation.‘Tones of Town’ begins where the Sunderland three-piece left us on their self-titled debut, avant-garde pop of the highest musical order. ‘Give It Lose It Take It’ sets the ball rolling with an upbeat groove and punchy riff; short, snappy, harmonious vocal phrases fight for space between handclaps and a kitsch 70’s moog counter melody during the second verse. The song bursts out of the stereo with glee on its face. ‘Sit Tight’ and the title track follow on merrily with complex arrangements and musicianship of the highest order, human beat-box and baroque strings should not work together but my God they do to wondrous effect. Just when I think this album couldn’t get any better I’m hit around the head by a touch of genius sequencing. Britpop-esque stomping pop (‘A House is Not a Home’), the wistful gentle strum along (‘Kingston’), album centre-piece and arguably best song here with angular guitars and melodic hooks galore, (‘Working to Work’), and then we get to ‘In Context’ with its drum loops, fat bass line and staccato piano, and the sheer bliss of not bothering with that old chestnut, ‘time signatures’, pah forget them, who needs them. Having listened to this record countless times since I got it I’ve thrown the calculator away and no longer need the strong black coffee. Field Music have produced an album of perfect pop, there is not one moment of weakness on the whole record. It’s the kind of album that makes all the other bands and musicians around at the time hang their heads and scurry off into the corner wishing that they had just half of the imagination and any of the melodic finesse. Accessible yet experimental with a ton of influences from all over the musical spectrum, these boys are clever bastards.