Islands

Return To The Sea

[3/5] Having already deconstructed pop-song formulas so charmingly as Unicorns, frontman Nick Diamonds and drummer J’aime Tambeur ensured that whatever they did for a follow-up would struggle to stay out of its predecessor’s shadow; and with Islands, the Montreal duo’s new band, they prove it. “Swan (Life After Death),” Return To The Sea’s nine-minute-plus opener, sounds like an attempt to reassure the faithful that Islands will continue messing with the indie rulebook no matter where their core members end up. But amid the highlife guitars and percussion that give Sea a delightful Afro-pop sheen–and in spite of the so-so hip-hop experiment “Where There’s A Will There’s A Whalebone”–it’s impossible to ignore the creeping conventionalism of the disc’s best tracks. Finest of all is the synth-burbling “Rough Gem,” which sounds a bit like the Arcade Fire covering the Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar.” It’s three-and-a-half-minutes of pop brilliance the old-fashioned way, yet still as otherworldly as those Unicorns of yore.
(EQUATOR) Dan LeRoy