Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Album Review - Islands

Islands – Arm's Way
[ANTI-Records; 20/05/08]

Island's are an enigmatic bunch. Brainchild, Nick Thornburn (recently of the now disbanded Unicorns), does his best to segregate himself from that trademark “indie” sound, by creating music that does its best to disengage with listeners. Arm's Way is the second album from the sextet from Montreal, which continues the quivering sounds.

I've always found myself jaded with The Unicorns and more recently, Islands, and Arm's Way fails to really alter the judgment. Quality control exorcises the the main demons towards what the band deliver upon their listeners. With a sound just a little too abnormal to render anything above 10 tracks, time and time again we see the band exceed this and once again, things are no different.

Despite trying to sound as a unique entity, Islands' sensibility is extremely reminiscent to the current wave coming out of Canada. It's just they tinker with the structure of the system and make things are little more quirky and disjointed than they really should be. Over-indulgence is not the easiest thing to engage with, but for those who have the time, the results could prove a little more fruitful. For those who are always in pursuit of something different, well, let's just say that you best stay on that train.

By Simon K

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