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Islands: Arm’s Way
It’s impossible to not love a record this ambitious, offering strange new worlds of discovery from first note to last. On first listen, it’s self-evident that Montreal’s Islands bring something unique to the table.
Having crafty string players in the band definitely helps, but Islands’ true strength lies in the quirky yet accomplished songwriting of Nick Thornburn. Case in point: it took several listens caught up in the beauty of “Pieces of You” before I began to suspect it might have less to do with fragmented memories and more to do with human remains.
The band is more than just talented; they handle lots of genres that you might not expect, and they do it with ease. By the time a full blown Cinqo de Mayo celebration is unleashed in the middle of “J’aime Vous Voir Quitter” you realize it’s par for the course and you should just relax and let it happen.
Standout tracks are “Abominable Snow” with its refrain about tracking “Sasquatches through the snowy climes of Canada” (bigfoot even puts in an appearance on the album cover, for which the artwork would make one kickass tattoo), and the old school rock anthem “Kids Don’t Know Shit.” Let’s face it, you can’t go wrong with a title like that.
I could do without the in-yo-face drum machine in “Creeper,” a monochromatic texture that belies an otherwise organic, nuanced approach to dynamics, and the extended instrumental noodling right at the end of the album isn’t my cup of tea, but everything else about Arm’s Way is right on the money.
Islands do things their way, and they do them very well, and I’m sad I wasn’t able to see them when they came through town last week. Maybe if I play the record loud enough they just might come back.
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