As Long as You Are by Future Islands

As Long as You Are, Future Islands' sixth studio album, came out on October 9, 2020, and for the first time the Baltimore synth-pop band had a proper drummer in the lineup: Michael Lowry, who had been playing with them on tour since 2014, was finally made a full member. You can hear the extra muscle.

Everything else is gloriously familiar: Gerrit Welmers' synths shimmering and pulsing, William Cashion's bass lines doing the singing underneath, and Samuel T. Herring out front, crooning, growling and pleading as if every line were a matter of life and death. "For Sure" is the one that caught on with rock radio, all forward motion and big-hearted uplift, a reminder that this band still writes songs that sound like being young and a little heartbroken at once.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.