Islands - Arm’s Way

Since 2006’s really-quite-good ‘Return To The Sea’, post-Unicorns project Islands has, quietly and stealthly, morphed into a kind of post-prog-pop beast Matt Bellamy would ditch his falsetto for.

For many, ‘progging it up’ might just be an excuse to be indulgent and, like, totally get into the music, but for ‘Arm’s Way’ - Islands’ second full-length - it feels like a absolute necessity for them. It’s not necessarily through indulgence or vanity that most tracks pass the five minute mark, it’s just there’s so many ideas crammed in here that it might feel like an injustice to edit it all down. Unfortunately, as much as there’s a shitload of ideas, the songs, melodies and charm that characterised ‘Return To The Sea’ rarely float to the surface.

‘Arm’s Way’ replaces the fun and giddy joy of their debut with drama and an altogether less digestible operatic pomp - though the likes of string-laden ‘The Arm’ and ‘Creeper’ (the nearest Islands get to a potential crossover indie-disco hit) shows they still know their way around a great pop song, it’s the likes of overlong, over-thought ‘In The Rushes’ and ‘Vertigo (If It’s A Crime)’ that really drag the album down. It’s certainly ambitious and chock full of stuff - touching on calypso, afrobeat, Motown, disco, jazz, orchestral and whatever other genre you can hunt down in your local Oxfam, but it’s all at the expense of a decent batch of tunes.

‘Arm’s Way’ becomes a frustrating listen - it’s impossible not to will the songs on to reach the final something that might pull it back from the brink - but it feels like cheering on a horse that falls at the final hurdle. For all the snippets of brilliance you’ll find in this record, it struggles to leave much of a lasting impression.