Islands, an indie pop band from Montreal, are set to release their third album, Vapours. While their last album, Arm's Way, was filled with songs with a lighter feeling and a sense of eeriness, Vapours contains music that feels heavier and more upbeat. The album consists of tunes that bring your mind toward the beach and focuses on reviving retro tunes to fit the modern era.
For those who need a more popular reference of more common bands in the past decades, one could compare Islands to a mix of the Beach Boys and the Beatles. The song ""Vapours"" will remind you of groovier times of the past. The album has the retro feel that is being revived. Retro is taking over our present world in our fashion style, and it only makes sense that this would happen for music as well.
The album is an excellent playlist for when you're chilling in your room, pondering your schedule for the next day, brainstorming for a writing topic or reminiscing about the past. The mix of drums, retro beats and occasional jazz instruments, such as trumpet and saxophone, appeal to everyone's personal taste, just as a long as you aren't a hard-core, spitting-beats, listening-to-old-Tupac-albums and contemplating on recording your own crime-inspired rap demo type of person. In that case, this album is probably not for you.
Anyone else who likes to take a mental trip to a calmer place like an island or beach, though, will find great pleasure in Vapours. Islands is a band of just that, creating a musical picture of what life on an island itself would be like. In the song ""Everything Is Under Control,"" there is even a faint background sound of oceanic waves to make the picture clearer.
A few of the songs, like ""On Foreigner,"" feel like a complete dream sequence, like you should be among dancing hippies holding up peace signs in the 1960s, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, retro is in.
The album as a whole is great. The songs are easy to listen to, and some have catchy grooves. Islands definitely have the ability to give their listeners a taste of the past and what is ahead for music. Vapours is a good mix of retro beats, jazz sounds and calm singing. As someone who had never heard of the band before, I will definitely be adding them to my iTunes playlist.
