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Future Islands' New Song, 'Cave,' Gets Rendered In ASL

As reported early last month, Future Islands will soon release a new album — the band's first since 2014's Singles helped make singer Samuel T. Herring a viral star — titled The Far Field. The new record arrives April 7 via 4AD, and it promises to carry on Future Islands' tradition of smoothly rendered but tightly wound rock and roll.

The album already has its first video, for "Ran," but The Far Field's latest song gets a different kind of visual representation — one nicely suited to Herring's flair for impassioned onstage movement. "Cave" is technically a lyric video, though Herring's words aren't rendered in type on the screen, nor does the singer appear himself. Instead, the words are displayed via the motions of Jonathan Lamberton, the American Sign Language interpreter for New York City mayor Bill De Blasio. It's a clever twist on lyric videos, sure, but it's also a marvelous showcase for Lamberton, whose impassioned and evocative readings had already made him an Internet hit.

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Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)