Bassculture Islands

The Baltimore group release As Long As You Are, their sixth studio record, via 4AD. As Long As You Are looks to the past as well as the future, confronting old ghosts and embracing a new hope. It is an album about trust, full of honesty, redemption and “letting go”, allowing old wounds to heal and bringing painful chapters to a close. As Long As You Are also signals a new era for Future Islands. Drummer Mike Lowry officially joins as a fully-fledged member and songwriter bolstering the founding trio of William Cashion, Samuel T. Herring and Gerrit Welmers. Together, the four-piece took on official production duties for the first time, co-producing As Long As You Are with engineer Steve Wright at his Wrightway Studios in Baltimore. Their brand of new wave synth-pop full of bright melodies and heavenly choruses is as euphoric and uninhibitedly joyful as anything the band has done in their 14-year career.

Forced to delay the tour supporting 2020's As Long as You Are due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Future Islands worked on new material and began releasing singles in 2021, starting with the brisk yet tender "Peach." The defiant "King of Sweden" and swaying slow jam "Deep in the Night" followed, with additional tracks and covers leading up to the early-2024 release of the band's seventh album, bearing the hard-hitting title People Who Aren't There Anymore. Co-produced by Steve Wright, who mixed the group's previous album, and mixed by Wright and Chris Coady, producer of the 2014 breakthrough Singles, the album includes all of the group's original songs from "Peach" onward, delivering the sort of passionate yet introspective performances that have long been Future Islands' trademark. Like so many of the band's records, People Who Aren't There Anymore is another refinement rather than a reinvention or bold step forward.