Islands - A Sleep & A Forgetting - (Anti-; 2012)

Islands - A Sleep & A Forgetting - (Anti-; 2012)

By Charlie Woodley; March 7th, 2012

Rating:  8.1

With considerably less fanfare than Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire, a band named The Unicorns emerged from the growing Candian indie music scene in the early part of this century.  Led by Nick Thorburn (then Nick Diamonds), The Unicorns released an odd, quirky pop album entitled Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?   An album of wholly original compositions which broke the traditional verse-chorus-verse mold, and succeeded in ratcheting the tensions in the music to a point where it seemed impossible for the band to avoid breaking into fisticuffs, no less make it through a song unscathed. It was inevitable that The Unicorns would each go their separate ways, pairs of them resurfacing here or there in various new bands and side projects.

With The Unicorns now behind them, Nick Thorburn and Jaime Thompson formed Islands, bringing along their knack for twisting the conventions of pop song writing and breathing new life into the genre with a view of bold innocence. Their 2006 debut, Return to the Sea, surpassed the promise of Who Will Cut Our Hair... with its maturity, its production values and its ability to capture the best aspects of their former selves. Although Thompson has come and gone with every other Islands record, Thorburn is the catalyst here, the songwriter, the vocalist, the poet.  A Sleep & A Forgetting finds Thompson vacating his position while Thorburn once again changes the Islands lineup, the results this time being a record unlike any of their previous. 

A Sleep & A Forgetting opens unassumingly and quietly enough with Thorburn asking us to "Open up your door for me", while a light shuffling beat propels the organ and understated guitar. Sounding almost timid, afraid of waking up his listeners, Thorburn allows us to enter his dream state.  Where Islands had previously introduced a variety of styles into their music, A Sleep & A Forgetting finds them exploring their pop music roots.  A regression and a step back to a simpler sound, which more aptly fits the personal nature of these 11 songs.  Whether or not this is a full-fledged "break-up album", it's personal enough for Thorburn to refer to himself in the third person on the brilliantly penned 'This Is Not A Song'. The slighty too long 'Never Go Solo' wanders briefly into the experimental nature of some of Islands previous work, but is anchored by a consistent and driving piano progression. 

'No Crying' is part Roy Orbison, part Smokey Robinson led by an all too familiar guitar line that wouldn't have sounded out of place in 1963.  All the time, Nick is winking at us "The chorus wept, the bridge caved in / The verses stung your perfect skin / But I don't feel like it's touched my soul."  On 'Can't Feel My Face', a distorted Hammond organ introduces what could be mistaken for a long lost nugget by The Animals, complete with Burdon-like declarations from the cuff, "I miss my wife / I miss my best friend every night / I miss my home / I miss my own bed, my old life."   

'Lonely Love' weaves its way with stop-start verses, the band dropping out as Thorburn purposefully accentuates the phrasing of his verses, building into a final chorus borrowed directly from Paul Simon's 'Crazy Love, Part II'.  The lonesome and haunting acoustic beginnings of 'Oh Maria' are reminiscent of some of Bright Eyes' better work as it falsely begins to build, but quickly settles back into its familiar ground. Stark confessional 'Don't I Love You' seemingly twists its difficult question inwards at the end, perhaps a song of self-contemplation rather than a plea about unrequited love.  

A Sleep & A Forgetting is bedroom-pop for an indie generation that could easily find a more mature audience. The songs rarely extend past their welcome, the entire proceeding clocking in at under 38 minutes. Islands have always managed to change direction, from the failed near prog-rock leanings of 2008's Arm's Way to the multitude of influences on their 2006 debut, sometimes showing all of them in the course of one nine minute song. Refusing to stand still, they change direction here once again, albeit towards one that is more traditional. The results are mostly refreshing and rousingly successful.  This is perhaps the band's most cohesive and deliberate set of songs to date, and certainly Thorburn's most personal.  His days with The Unicorns now nearly a decade behind him, he approaches the songwriting here in a way that is miles apart from Who Will Cut Our Hair.... The tension and nervousness now replaced by a maturity and confidence required to wear a project of personal reflection and the loss of innocence on one's sleeve.