When a record chirps with bright guitar hooks,
strings, keyboards, and a general sense of playfulness, skeptics immediately
fear an onslaught of tame, trivial indie-rock. Arm's Way, the second album from
Montreal band Islands, will taunt those skeptics: It imposes some polish on the
cluttered fun of 2005's Return To The Sea and singer Nick Thorburn's previous band,
Unicorns, and pushes it into perversely daunting song structures. "In The
Rushes" and the 11-minute album-closer "Vertigo (If It's A Crime)" let all
those standard elements grope at each other and slowly cohere in a murky dance
that isn't standard at all. Just as often, that instrumentation impatiently
blurs the songs together, and Thorburn's vocals force many into a
sweet-yet-sinister mood that feels immature. His flexibility on the stately,
melancholy "To A Bond," "Pieces Of You," and "Kids Don't Know Shit" should be a
constant instead of a surprise. Islands doesn't seem to fully grasp its own
strengths yet on Arm's Way. Still, it's better for a band to get lost on its
own terms than to stagnate.