Despite some efforts to the contrary, every now and again an indie band gets plucked from the orchard by some mainstream hand and dragged into the spotlight.

This time around it is Baltimore’s Future Islands, coming with “Singles.” It is their fourth album, but it might as well be their first, since you would not have gotten an enthusiastic response about its coming release from most people a month prior. 

Thanks to a smash performance on David Letterman that had the host still joking about Morrissey-looking singer Samuel Herring’s two step skills a day later, Future Islands and “Singles” is on every music lover’s tongue and eardrums.

Theirs is an interesting and novel sound, with peppy eighties keyboards and solid eighties grooves as the centerpieces, but the real calling card is Herring’s singing voice, which soars from animalistic snarls to smooth falsettos seemingly independent of his will. It lifts songs like first single  “Seasons (Waiting On You)” and “Spirit,” then makes them really pop with vibrancy. There are great moments where they manage to jump outside their own crafted box as well, with the chill wave-esque “Like the Moon,” and the tender testimonial “A Song for Our Grandfathers.”

At first though, I was beginning to believe that the hype behind Future Islands had about as much substance and personality to it as a blow up doll, because the songs eventually began to feel monosyllabic and were dragging on for an eternity. I eventually came around, but the fact that it could not keep me wanting to hear more after only a few songs says quite a bit about the album itself. It really lives up to its title, a collection of songs that are great to enjoy on their own. However, they do not really come together as an album in sequence, though this is something that the regents of indie like Arcade Fire understand very well.

I will put Future Islands in the “band to watch” folder for the moment, but that is still dangerously close to the trash can for music fans, unless a huge jump is taken. Feet, do not fail them now.