A.V. Club: Best of the Decade

Artist Islands

Islands, a band from Montreal, was born from the ashes of The Unicorns, a college-radio mainstay that effortlessly melded childlike instrumentation with brooding themes and a larger-than-life creation myth. The result proved a bit too volatile, so frontman Nick Diamonds dissolved the band and formed Islands, taking his old band’s knack for melody and fusing it with rich instrumentation—dueling violins, plenty of xylophone and organ—and a structural complexity that never ceases to surprise. Islands’ latest album, Vapours, traffics in threads of disco laced throughout the usual tangled bits and pieces of rock. 

Updated 10/28/2009

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