Let’s give Islands a mulligan on Arm’s Way. The band’s 2008 album was a disaster, from its creepy cover art to its overblown, string-heavy arrangements. With prog epics that were silly but not in the slightest bit catchy, it played against all of the strengths that made 2006’s Return to the Sea such a fun pop album.
Thankfully, on Vapours, songwriter Nick Thorburn is back to doing what he does best. The pompous theatrics have been abandoned in favour of unfussy electropop arrangements that are typically comprised of little more than a synthesizer, a guitar and a beat. The epic-length tracks are also gone, as the album’s twelve songs clock in at 42 minutes. (Arm’s Way was 68 minutes.) Most importantly, the melodies are hummable and the songs are memorable. Despite the recent glittery press photos, Vapours is an album of style over substance, with production that’s intended to serve the song and nothing more—even the T-Pain-style Auto-Tune on “Heartbeat” sounds strangely natural, as if nothing else could have worked in its place.
Drummer Jamie Thompson is back in the fold after a one-album departure, so perhaps he is partly responsible for the return to form. Still, it’s Thorburn who’s the star here. His voice is at its quirky best on “Switched On,” on which laser-beam synths drift over top of clattering rhythms and sunny doo-wop harmonies. On “Vapours,” keyboards squelch and Motown-style horns trill as Thorburn makes condensation sound both sleazy (”The vapours might make you wet”) and romantic (”You know I had my share of doubts / Until I saw the vapours in your eyes”).
mp3: “Vapours”
The crunchy “Tender Torture” features a straightforward disco groove, with bubblegum synth leads that are the perfect accompaniment for its sweetly romantic lyrics (”I’ll be your strings / If you pluck them I’ll sing for you”). The dense electro beats and moody guitars of “Shining” are perhaps the closest the album gets to the melodrama that derailed Arm’s Way; still, surrounded by summery pop and major-key bounciness, the song comes as a welcome departure.
Vapours isn’t revelatory or grandiose, but, thankfully, it isn’t trying to be. It’s an album that doesn’t aspire to be anything beyond a simple collection of pop songs, and this humility is what makes it so likable.
Vapours is out now via ANTI-.
Thankfully, on Vapours, songwriter Nick Thorburn is back to doing what he does best. The pompous theatrics have been abandoned in favour of unfussy electropop arrangements that are typically comprised of little more than a synthesizer, a guitar and a beat. The epic-length tracks are also gone, as the album’s twelve songs clock in at 42 minutes. (Arm’s Way was 68 minutes.) Most importantly, the melodies are hummable and the songs are memorable. Despite the recent glittery press photos, Vapours is an album of style over substance, with production that’s intended to serve the song and nothing more—even the T-Pain-style Auto-Tune on “Heartbeat” sounds strangely natural, as if nothing else could have worked in its place.
Drummer Jamie Thompson is back in the fold after a one-album departure, so perhaps he is partly responsible for the return to form. Still, it’s Thorburn who’s the star here. His voice is at its quirky best on “Switched On,” on which laser-beam synths drift over top of clattering rhythms and sunny doo-wop harmonies. On “Vapours,” keyboards squelch and Motown-style horns trill as Thorburn makes condensation sound both sleazy (”The vapours might make you wet”) and romantic (”You know I had my share of doubts / Until I saw the vapours in your eyes”).
mp3: “Vapours”
The crunchy “Tender Torture” features a straightforward disco groove, with bubblegum synth leads that are the perfect accompaniment for its sweetly romantic lyrics (”I’ll be your strings / If you pluck them I’ll sing for you”). The dense electro beats and moody guitars of “Shining” are perhaps the closest the album gets to the melodrama that derailed Arm’s Way; still, surrounded by summery pop and major-key bounciness, the song comes as a welcome departure.
Vapours isn’t revelatory or grandiose, but, thankfully, it isn’t trying to be. It’s an album that doesn’t aspire to be anything beyond a simple collection of pop songs, and this humility is what makes it so likable.
Vapours is out now via ANTI-.
