Islands - Islomania [Vinyl]

Over the course of ten groove-heavy songs, Islomania flits from the ridiculous to the sublime. On the surface, these songs are all blissful hedonism, tracing the reckless abandon of a progressively wild Friday night. But pick at the scab and there's a darkness. Themes of futility and repetition ("Closed Captioning"), a yearning for transcendence ("Natural Law Party"), a need for understanding ("A Passionate Age") and a deep desire for vulnerability and intimacy ("We Like to Do it With the Lights On") thread the album. "Tension and release exist throughout. Every song here begins bottled up, but there's always a cathartic release by the end. There's darkness and doubt in every crevice of this record, but there's always a release," Nick Thorburn says.