Arm's Way
|
Return to the Sea
You'd figure that starting off your album
with a nine minute song would automatically disqualify you from
indie pop rock stardom. but you'd be wrong. Imagine a more refined,
more coherent and indie rock traditional Unicorns,
and you have Islands. Could be because it's like the same dudes,
but it also could be because these guys know how to put together
a great song. Their songs have these great spiraling structures
that build and swell and retreat and throw in some whimsy and
then really crush you with walls of emotion. One song, "Don't
Call Me Whitney, Bobby," somehow sounds like a modern Paul Simon
song. They do an amazing job of swinging between musical genres
without sacrificing their core sound, which is both delicate
and soaring at the same time. Shit, they have Busdriver
rap on one song, and have steel drums on another. It may sound
like the album is all over the place, but with elements of Grandaddy,
Goldcard/Pond,
and, of course, The Unicorns, how the hell can you go wrong?
Crazy Canadians. |
Vapours
The ever-changing sound of Islands is once
again evident with their poppiest and most accessible record
yet. Long gone are the echoey ghosts of their former incarnation,
The Unicorns, replaced this
time with practically jubilant songs filled with synths, pianos,
horns and some serious head bobbing melodies and beats. Think
a way less spazzy, way more cool Hot
Hot Heat. There's just something really clean about the
album as it works its way through 12 tracks of true quirky pop
music. My favorite track, "Disarming the Car Bomb"
includes lyrics like "I uncrossed my arms to disarm the
car bomb" and they even employ a sweet talkbox on a track
called "Heartbeat." Definitely up there with some
of my favorites from 2009. |
Musical Connections:
Nick Diamonds
The Unicorns
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