Future Islands you say? That band name for some reason brings back a whole mess of 7th grade Earth Science lessons about tectonic plates gliding over hot spots in the Earth’s crust and forcing the ocean floor up and creating islands. Boom. Thank you, Mr. Goodrich.

Now that you’ve received your science lesson for the day, let’s move onto music class. “Balance” reminds me of 80s The Cure-style pop rock mixed with the indie of today. Not down in the dumps, crying through their eyeliner The Cure, but this The Cure. How can you not like that song?

I don’t always quote Pitchfork, but when I do, it’s when they aren’t being pretentious and say something worth quoting. This is what they have to say about “Balance,” which I find interesting and true regarding the “depressed dancefloor” comment:

“[The song] could work on a depressed dancefloor, but the sense of yearning is best suited to an introspective journey inside headphones, like watching the fall landscape pass from a backseat window.”

“Balance”