Islands - Return to the Sea
April 26th, 2006
By Archived Story
The music of Montreal outfit the Unicorns is most accurately remembered as smart but sporadic, a catalog of scattered lo-fi scuzz-pop filled with painfully precocious eruptions. They were delightful and difficult and destined to eventually combust.
Calling it quits in 2004 after the release of their sole LP, the genius Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, members Nick Diamonds and J’aime Tambeur dabbled briefly in obscure side projects. (Anyone remember Th’ Corn Gangg? Neither do we.) Now they’ve banded together again, sans guitarist Alden Penner, as the bright and hopefully long-term Islands.
“We noticed something glowing / and it was growing / things are about to change …” warbles Diamonds on Return To The Sea (Equator Records), Islands’ debut that strays from any prior awkwardness and instead unfolds like a well-mapped sailing of the seven seas. There are still traces of the Unicorns beloved quirks, but they’ve been seized and expanded upon with results a bit more structured and reassuring.
Anchoring somewhere between schtick and seriousness, Return To The Sea is an emotionally rich rock album with swelling orchestral arrangements, eclectic calypso undertones, and, in the case of the sexy-smooth “Where There’s A Will There’s A Whalebone,” hip-hop interludes. Diamonds and Tambeur keep the fumbling drums and messy guitars but turn them down and let the rest act as delicate instrumental padding for their tales of brittle bones, fleeting seasons, and fleeting hearts.
Return To The Sea opens with “Swans (Life After Death),” a ten-minute feel-good opus about climbing through the metaphorical blowhole to find the meaning of life within the belly. If not charmed by “Swans,” you’ll be taken by the bouncy, cheeky “Rough Gem” when you realize that is precisely what this album is.
Even if you remain a die-hard Unicorns fan, don’t be afraid to let Islands steal your heart and pawn it off for silver, pirate-style.
