Album Review: Field Report - Field Report
- Written by Alistair Seaton
These days a backstory seems to be obligatory for any debut album expecting to receive attention, and in this sense Field Report doesn't disappoint. It is a vehicle for Christopher Porterfield (of which Field Report is an anagram of his surname), a former member of DeYarmond Edison, the band that also used to provide a home for Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and future members of Megafaun, Phil and Brad Cook. Given this pedigree, his self-titled debut sounds much as you might expect: folky, rootsy and slow-paced. Sparse and predominately acoustic, it also deploys splashes of synths in a way not dissimilar to the recent Phosphorescent album.
On first listen, dreamlike lyrics appear to consist of seemingly snatched phrases, decipherable perhaps by their author only (the opening line of the album is “This is the one in which I miraculously pull out of a free-fall dive over Fergus Falls”). Repeated listens start to reveal snippets to latch on to. Bitterness and restlessness begin to show themselves as themes, the songs emerging as a series of drifter anthems (“ I've been blowing through time like nickel slots/In a windowless room on a credit card” on ‘I Am Not Waiting Anymore’).
The songs themselves also tend to drift along and can occasionally pass by without leaving much of a mark first time around. While the instrumentation changes subtlety (pedal steel here and harmonies there), it is rarely radical, so when they arrive the drums on ‘Incommunicado’ introduce a welcome change, as do the electric guitars on ‘Chico the American’. They help break up what can otherwise at times feel overwrought. It is not until the penultimate track, ‘Captain Video’, that Porterfield lets rip with his vocals, providing a real sense of commitment to what he is singing. While this may not match the inventiveness or experimentation of some of his former band mates’ work, Porterfield has made an album that patient listeners should find plenty to immerse themselves in and enjoy.
Field Report is out on May 27 and available from amazon