Hailing from Montreal, Islands specialise in richly textured, symphonic power pop. Arm’s Way is their second record and sees them step effortlessly out of the shadow of their rather brilliant debut ‘Return To The Sea’ to offer up a wonderfully versatile record that sounds better with each subsequent listen. Lush strings sweep in and out of guitar-led, drum-crashing harmonies on the likes of ‘Life In Jail’, whilst the fun and frisky ‘Creeper’ will defy you not to tap your foot along to its infectious groove. The protean string sections on ‘In The Rushes’ and ‘Pieces Of You’ are enough to make Owen Pallett blush, while the eccentric theatrics of ‘We Swim’ are as diverse as its five-minute duration will allow. Each track feels as eclectic and twistedly constructed as the next, exemplified perfectly in ‘J’aime Vous Voir Quitter’, with its bombastic opening riffs and gently cooing chorus giving way to frantic Latino-tinged madness and the closing “gothic symphony in three acts”, ‘Vertigo (If It’s A Crime)’. James Gracey
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DOWNLOAD: ‘I FEEL EVIL CREEPING IN’, ‘ABOMINABLE SNOW’, ‘KIDS DON’T KNOW SHIT’.
FOR FANS OF: IMMACULATE MACHINE, ARCADE FIRE, ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI.
