Future Islands
From a Hole in the Floor to a Fountain of Youth
4AD
Currently playing shows on a stretch they’re calling the “Fountain of Youth Tour,” Future Islands have had a fixation on age and the concept of time elapsing in general since the get-go. But don’t mistake that for vanity; to the contrary, time is a gift in that it inherently provides us with the present—and, thus, the opportunity to be conscious of the bounty of life itself that each of us have—at every given moment. As the synthpop quartet’s bassist William Cashion more eloquently stated, “the fountain is the magic that happens when the life you dreamed about actually becomes the one you’re living. It’s the dream and the reality existing in the same room.”
Future Islands are among the minority of artists who’ve leveraged artist empowerment to their advantage from their earliest years together. It isn’t common for a band to showcase songs that never appeared on one of their studio releases (or even streaming platforms) again and again at their concerts—to the point that fans come to see the value of these songs as much as the musicians behind them had all along. Among the 20 songs featured on their new B-sides collection celebrating 20 years of the band, From a Hole in the Floor to a Fountain of Youth, Future Islands have played all but three in concert over the years: the tour-only 7-inch selection “Sail,” the Japan-only As Long as You Are bonus track “Days,” and the demo “Roger.” Other songs like “The Chase,” “Haunted by You,” and “Glimpse” they’ve performed dozens of times.
It’s no longer kitschy for bands to re-release albums marking their 20th or 10th—or even first—anniversary, generally using that as enough justification to once again tour behind them. It sounds obvious, but it’s worth reiterating that we’re living in a time in which social media has permeated every waking moment of our lives, and all too many artists have—consciously or otherwise—fallen prey to valuing popularity over the quality of their art, with A&R reps and detached-from-reality record labels reinforcing the promotion of music that’s already proven marketable over anything new. The irony shouldn’t be lost on these artists that, while they have more control and sway than ever before, they’re also more obsessed with popularity and vacuous congratulatory feedback.
But the proof is in the playlist for Future Islands, not to mention in the tour they’ve embarked on supporting this somewhat unusual odds-and-sods collection. They’re celebrating their work in a roundabout way by propping up their less known—or even previously entirely unknown—material so that their fans can see the band’s pride in these cutting-room-floor songs. They aren’t throwaways, cobbled together like a pile of dust and scraps after sweeping the kitchen. Rather, even the tracks that didn’t make the cut on proper studio releases still have value; every Future Islands tune is one of their children. Will the band be around for another 20 years? Time will tell. Hope springs eternal. The future is not yet written.
