{"id":41082,"date":"2008-09-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/arms-way\/"},"modified":"2008-09-05T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-05T00:00:00","slug":"arms-way","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/arms-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Arm’s Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Islands\u2019 apocalyptically infectious debut is one of those discs I\u2019ve worn down to the seams. Uniformly incredible, Return To The Sea<\/i> zipped through sunny calypso and thrumming hip-hop beats and morbidly catchy tales of brittle bones, catastrophic volcanic explosions, and setting up home inside of a whale. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Their latest, meanwhile, following the abrupt departure of drummer Jaime Thompson (formerly J\u2019aime Tambeur), is all pained, haunting darkness: lyrics obsessing over hemorrhages and hangings and dog attacks are buoyed by theatrical, ever-building string arrangements, stabbing drums, and the insistent warble of multi-instrumentalist Nick Thorburn. It\u2019s a bloodbath, really, but a strangely pretty one nonetheless. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

But for all the ominous energy that pulses through this disc, it never quite captures the sheer breathlessness of Islands<\/st1:place>\u2019 debut, largely due to a long string of epic tracks that, though sonically lovely, are left to percolate a little too long and don\u2019t seem to chart any new waters. Still, things start off well enough and stay that way through the first half of Arm\u2019s Way<\/i>. \u201cThe Arm\u201d sets off the album\u2019s sprawl, beginning with lush violins and synths that, with a sudden curdling howl, give way just as quickly to a stomping guitar line, staccato piano, and lilting harmonies. Next up, \u201cPieces Of You\u201d is pure jauntiness, the sweetly sinister lyrics (\u201cThey found your bones in the homes \/ Of a thousand little gnomes \/ Who\u2019d taken pieces for decoration\u201d) paired with silky instrumentation and Thorburn\u2019s soaring voice.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cJ\u2019aime Vous Voire Quitter\u201d hurtles a not-so-subtle attack at Tambeur (\u201cYou said you had my back \/ But I was attacked by a pack of dogs frothing at the mouth \/ Stabbed in the face, glass in my guts\u201d). The crunching, chugging guitars and snarled vocals soon give way to, of all things, a warp-speed \u201cLa Bamba\u201d breakdown. It\u2019s scathing, visceral, and a little silly — which is Islands<\/st1:place> at their best.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Arm\u2019s Way<\/i> hits its peak with lead single \u201cCreeper,\u201d a synthy disco-pop stunner that demands your attention right from the start as Thorburn\u2019s jagged croon marbles with the swirling guitars: \u201cRight from the start I was stabbed in the heart \/ Didn’t know I wasn\u2019t breathing \/ Didn\u2019t know I had been bleeding.\u201d It\u2019s a strange sing-along, to be sure, but delightful nonetheless. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that\u2019s where the momentum begins to break down. Sure, there are some essential moments to be found here that make each song worth at least a listen, from the fragile falsetto of \u201cKids Don\u2019t Know Shit\u201d to the \u201cLust For Life\u201d jam in the middle of \u201cLife In Jail.\u201d But where the rapid-fire tempo changes of Return To The Sea<\/i> were routinely surprising and inventive, they\u2019ve become too predictable, jammed in inevitably in each song. Not to mention, it\u2019s all awash in a despairing hopelessness that belies the sinister yet bouncy charm of their debut. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ultimately, Arm\u2019s Way<\/i> gets bogged down in its own baroque sensibilities, piling on section after section after seven-minute track as the album shambles towards its seventy-minute runtime.\u00a0 Islands still is largely brilliant, evidenced in the album\u2019s stunning first half, but the potential is a little too squandered here, and there\u2019s nothing worse than that from a group as capable and creative as Islands<\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":29501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7727],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-41082","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-islands","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41082"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}