Measure is Field Music’s return to recording after Tones of Town, their utterly lovable 2007 album. They had planned to break up after touring for that album. They said in an interview that their music made them “sick”, and that they were tired of doing things that were "classed as 'Field Music indie band'." That’s the trouble with hitting on a winning formula, as the band did on Tones: the music risks becoming trapped by the formula.

Measure seems to be the band’s attempt to break out of the indie formula that served them (and us) so well not so long ago. There are weird guitar sounds (“In the Mirror”), strange synth-like string arrangements (“Measure”), choruses that seem to cut out before they get started (“Them That Do Nothing,” the album’s first single). And this is just in the space of the first four songs.

In spite of their new look-ma-no-formula attempts at experimentation, the band never succeeds in getting out of their self-diagnosed rut on Measure, and the result is a distorted not-quite-Field-Music Field Music sound. You keep wanting them to drop the awkward weirdness and go back to what works, but they never do. And it keeps on not working, with many of the songs dragging on far too long. “Lights Up” lasts a dim four minutes, a span that seems interminable, partly due to the use of an annoying echo effect (“I . . . I . . . I . . .”). Even the band seems to get bored during a few songs, as on “Each Time Is a New Time,” when they just slump into singing “da da da da,” and not in a cool, "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" Police way. I guess it helps the time pass—and there is a lot of time to pass: Measure is a twenty-song double album. There is really no excuse for the final track, “It’s About Time,” a meandering mix of strings and odd noises that lasts well over nine minutes. I dare you to make it through the whole track. This is the sound of a band running out of ideas.

Measure fails to "measure" up because it tries to create a new sound by just adding different instruments and tricks into the old sound and mixing things up. But that doesn't work anymore than you can revive a marriage by putting blonde streaks in your hair and buying some new clothes. All you get is a superficial change that only serves to make you long for what was and remind you that it isn't any more.

If you want to make something new, you’ve got to break things down before you build them up again. On Measure, Field Music doesn’t do this. They sing in falsetto and add crazy xylophone interludes (“Let’s Write a Book”), but we know it’s the same old Field Music just trying a little too hard not to sound too much like themselves. They may be having fun (it’s hard to tell), but we certainly aren’t. The first part of the album ends with "You and I," a kind of dirge which is nearly unlistenable. Many of the songs start with slow, strange experiments, more as though no one really knows what they’re doing than as if someone was trying something new. They're trying to get out of their comfort zone, but they only succeed in sounding like they're trying. They stray just enough from the formula to remind us of it and make us wish they hadn’t changed a thing, without going far enough to actually make anything interesting or new.

What was wrong with the formula, anyway? What’s wrong with being the “Field Music indie band”? One of the album’s better songs, “Something Familiar,” gives us precisely that familiar formula—poppy harmonies over a quick beat—in an eminently hummable tune. Except for the strange, slow ending, the song works. Scattered throughout the album are moments of genuine beauty that prove that this band still has what it takes: tight playing, sweet harmonies, etc. Everything comes together in the best track of the album, “The Rest Is Noise.” This is the Field Music we love. Sadly, the title of that track serves as a sad commentary on most of the album. The rest is pretty much noise.

Memo to Field Music: don’t retire again. We like your music, we really do. But if this is the best you can do when you try something new, please stick to the formula. Stay away from the not-quite-Field-Music that dominates Measure. Come back to us.

Track List:
Disc 1
1. In the Mirror
2. Them That Do Nothing
3. Each Time Is a New Time
4. Measure
5. Effortlessly
6. Clear Water
7. Lights Up
8. All You'd Ever Need to Say
9. Let's Write a Book
10. You and I

Disc 2
11. The Rest Is Noise
12. Curves of the Needle
13. Choosing Numbers
14. The Wheels Are in Place
15. First Come the Wish
16. Precious Plans
17. See You Later
18. Something Familiar
19. Share the Words
20. It's About Time