Anti
2008
Arms Way
About This Album
Islands' Arm's Way isn't a complete disaster, but it flirts with it before ending up as merely a seriously flawed and unenjoyable album. Their debut was a ramshackle mess of kitchen-sink experimentation that worked a treat thanks to the band's endearingly weird arrangements and undeniably catchy songs. Much like an album by front man Nick Thorburn's previous band, the Unicorns, there was humor and devil may care attitude coursing through the grooves. Arm's Way makes the mistake of taking things more seriously, bathing songs in strings and arranging things so slickly and epically that you have to check the liners for a Dave Fridmann production credit. It's not there but it might as well be as large chunks of the record sound like Mercury Rev outtakes. Unfortunately like that band's late period releases, there's a hole where the soul should be. Tracks like "The Arm" and "Kids Don't Know S**t" sound bloated and Thorburn's constant bouts of dramatic over-singing give the album a desperate and affected feel. One of the best aspects of their first album was the playful sonic weirdness that was organically integrated into their sound; here it seems grafted on at the last minute.
Track List (try tracks 1,4,5 and 8)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.