'Go to Town'

If you haven't heard of Field Music yet, you're far from alone -- their 2005 self-titled debut garnered some attention in their native Britain, but only created a minor buzz in U.S. indie circles, where it was buried under the sea of U.K. post-punk groups following in the wake of Franz Ferdinand's breakthrough (a somewhat unfair result, as the band's sound is quite distant from many of these acts -- but, more on that in a moment). \nHowever, this week Field Music returned to these shores armed with a simply excellent sophomore album -- Tones of Town -- and, while it's unlikely to breach the mainstream (especially with "The OC" canceled), if listeners prize quality, it should vault the group from the ranks of "band seen mentioned on an mp3 blog" to "indie-known."\nIn Tones, Field Music combine two great tastes that taste great together -- warm harmonies and precise, almost symphonic song construction -- but, then, rein it all in with quiet understatement. By delivering the vocals, guitars, violins and other elements chopped up in short, ringing bursts, they sound like XTC (or modern descendents, The Futureheads) -- but with their jangled nerves soothed by Valium. Or, to look at it another way, if The Arcade Fire is offering up indie rock's take on opera, Field Music is offering up the genre's take on chamber music (think "Pachelbel's Canon"). With everything so carefully arranged, it's like listening to a clockwork rock band -- but, as in the fairy tale of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" -- there's a real heart beating under the artifice.\nAnd it's this that makes Tones succeed where its predecessor didn't. Field Music's debut was creative and pleasant, but too precociously clever -- a band showing off its neat tricks. Tones, on the other hand, gives the sound meaning by using it to tell a story of misplaced priorities -- just as the band ticks along, you can feel time slip away from the album's unnamed protagonist as he chooses work and material things over the simple pleasures, home and love.\nIf there's a weakness to Tones, it's that things can be a little too restrained -- late in the album, the prettiness of tracks like "Closer At Hand," "Place Yourself" and "She Can Do What She Wants" almost conceal the tragedy of the relationship's collapse. But listen closely, and you hear a tin heart break.