Islands: Arm's Way

Composed former of members of short-lived, much-loved indie pop The Unicorns, one might expect Islands to follow at least slightly in their footsteps, but a radical shift came with Islands first album, Return to the Sea and this change has been cemented completely on their second album. Arm’s Way takes the tradition of Canadian orchestral rock and blows it up to ridicules proportions; from the over-dramatic lyrics, punning titles, verbose sounds, and even the insane and disturbing cover art. In truth it has more in common with symphonic prog bands such as Electric Light Orchestra than with, say, Arcade Fire. Bombastic guitars screech and rumble in ascending lines while crystal clear strings do more than accent, they carry the songs in many cases. Another large factor in the album is the quite obvious glam influence to be found at the core of many of the songs; the outlandish eccentricities of David Bowie, the experimental string work of Brian Eno, the wicked pop of Roxy Music, the swagger and grit of T. Rex can all be found within Arm’s Way. It’s this mixture of glam era styles and bombastic prog leanings with modern indie rock sensibilities that makes the album so intriguing, and it’s a surprising sound album, whose only arguable fault is the length; 12 tracks at 68 minutes can tend to be somewhat of an overload.
Listen ("The Arm")