IAN BLURTON'S FUTURE NOW - CRIMES OF THE CITY

Sir Ian Blurton created a herculean task for himself when he unleashed his last Future Now album, Second Skin, onto the world in 2022. How does one top the most substantial release of their entire career? The answer is deceptively simple -- continue the narrative forward, as he aptly does on the hotly-anticipated follow-up LP, Crimes of the City.

A few immediate takeaways jump out upon first listen -- the songs are shorter this time around (nothing hits the four-minute mark), the background harmonies are sweeter (thanks to Sloan's Gregory Macdonald), and the playing is tighter than ever (thanks to masterful performances by the entire Future Now band). However, the less obvious realization is that Crimes of the City is in fact Act III of multi-album narrative arc that began with 2019's Signals Through the Flames.

Point in case, second single "Seventh Sin of Devotion" picks up right where "Seven Bells" from Signals Through the Flames left off ("Seven bells for seven sins"). Furthermore, Second Skin's title track provided the thesis statement for the entire Crimes of the City album ("They're tearing the city down/Just to build it back up"). Hell, even lead single and album-opener "Ends of August" roars out of the speakers with a triumphant bombast that recalls Section VII: "Grand Finale" from Rush's 2112. Simply put, Crimes of the City is epic in its own right, but is exponentially more epic when contextualized as one piece of a much larger, more complex story.

There are other cool narrative through-lines for longtime followers of Blurton's body of work. Album closer "Assailed by the Sun" wraps up a trilogy of Sun songs that originated with C'mon ("We Own the Sun", "Spin Around the Sun" -- and while we're at it, "Sun Won't Wait" from Public Animal's 2023 swansong LP). Likewise, the Alice Cooper nod "School's In" picks up musically where C'mon's "The Mountain" left off (only delivered in one quarter the running time).

The only shortcoming of this album is that it ends too quickly -- clocking in at under forty minutes, it definitely leaves you wanting more. It begs the questions what Act IV of the Future Now saga might sound like, and how long the wait will be to hear it. Then again, Blurton might just change his mind and have a change of heart.

-Leks Maltby