Review by Tim MartinThe sun rises on a new Islands record. Tight guitar hooks slap us like rays of sunshine, and the listener is transported to that ethereal dance floor that exists only in MJ videos and snow globes. Nick Thorburn carefully joins letters and phrases with poetic deftness, and the album makes all of us feel like morning people.
It’s like the band we all imagined would play at our prom, while the DJ was having a love affair with JT. “Return to the Sea” was my farewell to high school. There is deep nostalgia buried in an Islands record for me, and digging up the memories is easy on anthemic tracks like, “Becoming the Gunship.” Meanwhile, “Shotgun Vision” and “Death Drive” will have us dancing from the Forum to the Big Owe.
There is a real heaviness in Thorburn’s writing, from gas chambers to societal anesthetics, yet Islands drives us anywhere but to sleep. It is dark, gutsy, and intriguing. “We’ll Do It So You Don’t Have To” provides the ambience of early Elliot Smith, transitions to strictly punctuated bass lines, and concludes in a bright Cohen-esque melody.
The record starts spinning in the corner of the room. We dance like the aqueous sparks of glow sticks. This is the music of sea creatures, of waves, and of the flora swaying by the coast. We are not prom-king and queen. We are shiny freckles of salt water, undulating upon a safe shore.
