Field Music: Field Music (Measure)

After their 2007 second album Tones of Town, Field Music's brotherly duo, ­Peter and David Brewis, took the curious decision to split for a while and form their own bands. Now reunited – with a rejigged line-up – they have ­obviously been stockpiling an abundance of ­creative urges. This sprawling double album features a whopping 20 songs, divided into four separate ­segments. If the structure has a whiff of the prog rock magnum opus about it, the music follows suit. Paul ­McCartney's ­influence looms large on the more ­melodic ­moments. Several tracks set up an unlikely meeting between ­angular ­Sunderland peers Futureheads and mid-70s Wings, and the ­beautifully ­orchestrated Measure could be a lost outtake from Abbey Road. But the album loses its way in an odyssey of soft rock, Mesureshifting time signatures and Supertramp-esque ­twiddles. Sublime moments – the lovely piano riff on The Rest Is Noise, the ­rueful Precious Plans and "oh to be young again" cry of Curves of the Needle – battle to find a way out of prog-rock hell.