Islands—Vapours (Anti)
“I’ve put on something you can’t switch off,” begins the latest album from Islands. The opening lyric definitely sets the stage for the rest of the album: Vapours, the Montreal artsy pop-rock band’s third disc, isn’t perfect, but at the same time, it’s awfully hard to shut off. The mostly electronic sound provides plenty of slick synth riffs and shuffle-your-feet beats, and the sheer catchiness of it all is irresistible.
My gripes with the album are few and far between, but noticeable nonetheless. Lead man Nick Thorburn’s voice (sometimes a Rivers Cuomo sound-alike, sometimes Liam Gallagher, sometimes Benjamin Gibbard) sounds good, but never great. It does the trick, but that’s about it. The weakest part of the album, however, is its lyrics: they’re mostly fun, and they sound nice (Thorburn seems to love assonance and alliteration), but meaning-wise, they’re pretty bland.
Regardless of the aforementioned minor disappointments, this album is a hit. Title track “Vapours” is sure to get your hips moving with its Beck-ish baseline and horns, and “Tender Torture” will have you howling along. Vapours is an expertly paced album, with the trio of slower, creeping gut-wrenchers, “Shining,” “On Foreigner,” and “Heartbeat,” coming at the perfect time. The best part of the album, though, and the part that will keep you listening to it over and over, is its uniqueness. Islands has assembled a collection of songs with sounds chosen from all across the spectrum. Put together, they truly sound like nothing else.—Evan O’Donnell
The Flaming Lips—Embryonic (Warner)
Thirty seconds into the first track on The Flaming Lips’ new album, Embryonic, I want to get up onto the couch I’m sitting on and start dancing crazily. Sober. And 18 glorious songs later, the feeling hasn’t subsided. That’s just how good the latest offering of Wayne Coyne, Michael Ivins, Steven Drozd, and Kliph Scurlock is.
Embryonic is the group’s 12th studio album, and it’s experimental, raw, and multi-layered. You can listen to this disc endlessly and still hear new things each time. Although Lips fans will be reminded of 1997’s Zaireeka, it’s less of an homage to the past, and more like a trip to the future. The psychedelic-rock influence of the band’s early days is evident, but now it’s spiced with a touch of Joy Division. The bass lines are haunting, but the drumbeats are danceable, and there’s even crazy hissing and animal sounds.
Embryonic has the slightly self-indulgent instrumental tracks (“Aquarius Sabotage,” “Scorpio Sword,” and “Virgo Self-Esteem Broadcast”) and lyrics that tell it like it is. (Think “People are evil, it’s true / But on the other side / They can be gentle too / If they decide.”) “I Can Be a Frog” makes great use of Coyne’s nursey-rhyme lyrical style, and Karen O’s background vocals raise the song up to a new level. Embryonic is missing the “Do You Realize?”–type pop tracks of recent albums, but makes up for the loss with sincere lyrical and musical depth.
In a recent interview with Spin magazine, Coyne explained, “For our audience, this isn’t going to be a leap. But if we tried to be a big rock radio band and just get a Pepsi commercial, we wouldn’t be worthy of their forgiveness.” Embryonic stays true to that ideal—something I’m sure many of us can appreciate.—Meghan McCabe
