Collarbones - 'Futurity' [Album Review]

In constant pursuit of the future, Collarbones returns with their long anticipated album ‘Futurity’, following a five year artistic process. With a spectrum of sonic textures and narratives, Collarbones brings their most captivating release to date, pushing their horizons both sonically and personally. Subtly accompanied by soft keys, the album opens with the bold proclamations on ‘Church’. A sort of promise that comes with investing time into a romantic interest who can later become such a significant presence, Collarbones finds temptation in exploring the unknown. This storyline sets the precedence for the rest of the album; a visionary fantasy that unpacks romantic instincts and aims to traverse the depths of our existence. Diving into the prosperous complexities of ‘Futurity’, lead single ‘A.I.’ brings an anthemic element to the body of work, pushing their sound design to supreme ranges. Tracks like ‘Haunted’ recall the early stages of a relationship with edging electric riffs, bringing the composition into an expansive orchestration. The album then polishes off with ‘Lotion’. An exposing monologue that goes from a simple piano ballad into an aching soundscape of experimental euphoria, the closing number asserts Collarbones astoundingly versatile sound.

Largely informed by queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz, Marcus Whale and Travis Cook of Collarbones saw this album as a platform to explore the term “futurity”. As Muñoz expresses in ‘Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity’, “Queerness is a longing that propels us onward, beyond romances of the negative and toiling in the present. Queerness is that thing that lets us feel that this world is not enough, that indeed that something is missing.” As Marcus expresses in an intimate interview with Pilerats on the album’s writing process, “for me, it’s a rejection of the flatness of the present for a field of potentiality that illuminates us with other ways of being. It’s this imaginary space to which I return when I try to unpack my romantic instincts.” Through ‘Futurity’, Whale and Cook shape queerness as an evolving pursuit for something more and unknowable.

This album also draws upon a larger theme of longing; an often obsessive and impulsive feeling that comes with an initial romantic interest we know all too well; the crush. Swelling with ideas of fantasy, imagination, and obsession this all consuming headspace takes a focal point in ‘Futurity’ revealing the overpowering affect longing can have on our bodies and souls. Moreover, ‘Futurity’ reconsiders queer imagination as something more than the present; conceptualising queerness as an ever evolving reality that focuses on a future-bound phenomenon. Inarguably, Collarbones releases one of the most compelling releases of the year. ‘Futurity’ not only works to process desire for the artists, but further challenges the listener to pursue their own horizon of being.