Maybe it’s the jet lag talking, this exacerbated by the fact that they’ve only been back on North American soil for a couple of hours. Or perhaps they still can’t get over hitting the culinary jackpot on their just-completed European tour for their coming-this-fall album, On the Water.

Whatever the reason, Future Islands members Samuel Herring (vocals) and William Cashion (bass) are both in a great, almost-giddy mood when the Georgia Straight tracks them down in New York. On his cellphone, Cashion reveals that the group’s latest tour was a smashing success, and not just because Europeans obviously get what the Baltimore-based, progressive-postpop trio (which also includes keyboardist Gerrit Welmers) is shooting for artistically.

“Our big issue was that, the first two times we were on tour over there, we didn’t get to eat any sausages or meat,” the bassist reveals. “This tour we got to eat all the meat that we wanted—it was sooooo awesome. We ate tons of sausages and pork—you name it, we ate it. We’d always heard that Germany and Europe had the best sausages, so we always went over in the past expecting a big sausage party—no pun intended—and we’d get vegan or vegetarian food, because that’s what a lot of American bands apparently eat.”

The sausage-related talk doesn’t end when Herring grabs the phone. When it’s suggested that On the Water might very well be the most honest, drama-drenched breakup record of the year—this bolstered by some of the most unflinching lyrics this side of the Afghan Whigs’ Gentleman—the singer is more than thrilled. He takes that as a cue to give a detailed breakdown of what exactly the record’s 10 synth-soaked, DIY-flavoured songs are about and what inspired them.

In the middle of this detailed analysis, Herring laughs, and then says, “Oh, God—I’m giving myself a fucking handjob here, dude. Um, you don’t have to write that down. Don’t get me started on my lyrics. It’s one of those things where you sit down and start writing and don’t really know what you’re saying.”

The singer—who’s earned a reputation as one of the most captivating frontmen currently working in pop music—has a pretty good handle today on what he and his bandmates created. Herring describes On the Water as a letter to three women who’ve played a big role in his life, one of them an old friend, one of them an ex, and one of them an on-again, off-again girlfriend. Even though feelings were obviously hurt, there’s no vitriol or venom to be found; Future Islands went down that road with 2010’s often harrowing In the Evening Air. This time out, Herring comes off as a man sitting at the same seedy tavern table as Tom Waits, Greg Dulli, and the Tindersticks’ Stuart Staples, poking through the sepia-toned wreckage against a backdrop of star-dusted soft-wash synths, church-service organs, and sampled sounds (the ocean being a big one).

What makes the record fascinating is the way that he seems on a mission to make peace with his past. Mesmerizing only begins to describe the pulsing, celestial “Where I Found You”, which starts out with Herring reminiscing over all the things that once enthralled him about a former lover, and then moves forward with the emotionally devastating lines “I remember that day we sat in some strange bar/With nothing much to say, nothing at all/I loved you, and I still do.”

Obviously, Future Island’s baritoned frontman has regrets that transcend not getting enough sausage his first couple of trips overseas. But he’s the first to acknowledge that he’s working through them, his big hope being that On the Water might help others do the same.

“After the album was finished, I came to the guys—and I think I was kind of drunk—going, ”˜We should have called the album House of Healing,’ ” Herring says with a laugh. “It’s a healing album. The more I listen to it, I’m like, ”˜This is a special album that I think will help a lot of people out.’ ”

Future Islands plays the Media Club on Thursday (August 4).