Rough Gem : Islands

Album: Return To The Sea 2006

Born from the indie-pop ashes of the favorite underground band The Unicorns in 2005, Return to the Sea is the debut album of a great new Canadian band (Montreal to be exact). In fact there has been a lot of good music coming from Canada lately (Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, New ographers, Feist, etc.) and Islands are riding that wave. Where The Unicorns (and a lot of other similar bands from the indie rock tree) were chaotic, lo-fi experimenters in the stranger side of indie-pop, Islands are a much more mature and emotional band, adding a variety of new instruments to their repertoire, some unusual to what you’ve heard from other indie-popsters (i.e. strings, accordions, upright bass, etc.) for a much more adult and often whimsical sound. You don’t have to be a fan of The Unicorns or indie-pop in general to like this album , all you need is two functioning ears and two hands to clap along.

What really stands out for me in this album is the ludicrous and often surreal lyrics like “You can Scoop out my brain /Shape it into an ear and then tell me your pain” –just par for the course in this album. The most appropriate way I can describe these guys is that they’re strangly lovable and lovably strange. It’s too bad that this band doesn’t get more exposure and recognition.

Much thanks to Equator Records for releasing this album. ISLANDS ARE FOREVER!
Go buy the rest of their albums too.

My personal favorites are
Rough Gem
Volcanoes
Swans (Life After Death)

Duration : 0:3:37


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25 Responses to “Rough Gem : Islands”

  1. cheetopuff4 Says:

    This is an awesome …
    This is an awesome song. I saw it on Halo 3 Mythbusters and I tryed to find it and now I did. :O

  2. digdoug42 Says:

    if i didnt show u …
    if i didnt show u this song i wonder what the world would be like today

  3. JSowneneyt Says:

    this is beautiful.. …
    this is beautiful… very soothing

  4. xTheThirstOfPeacex Says:

    magnificent. =]
    magnificent. =]

  5. MangoSalad99 Says:

    If this song was a …
    If this song was a girl I’d want her really really bad…

  6. Brawlmasters57 Says:

    awesomeness
    awesomeness

  7. Ataraxis44 Says:

    beautiful
    beautiful

  8. robotgirlomatic Says:

    love this song
    love this song

  9. Indigo483 Says:

    Best song ever
    Best song ever

  10. sophieanerd Says:

    love this (:
    love this (:

  11. squidge789 Says:

    omg thats when i …
    omg thats when i listend to this song to and holy its amazing

  12. chanmeister Says:

    holy this song …
    holy this song is to good to be true

  13. Laylamexic Says:

    me too =D and i …
    me too =D and i cant stop listening to it u.u

  14. ExclamateTheQuestion Says:

    i lisen to this …
    i lisen to this song everyday, it’s just so good!

  15. halodudify Says:

    i heard this on …
    i heard this on halo 3 mythbusters episode 5

  16. xelnagav280 Says:

    a month ago and I’m …
    a month ago and I’m still coming back.. luv dis!

  17. Axselevosx Says:

    thank you sirius …
    thank you sirius satelite radio for showing me this amazing song

  18. loveinmysummerskin Says:

    never knew they …
    never knew they were in a halo vid..
    islands is just a sick band =)

  19. FrontFlipFlipper4 Says:

    wow all the things …
    wow all the things halo 3 videos have shown me XD

  20. jaymanxyz2 Says:

    I loved this song …
    I loved this song LONG before I saw that Halo Mythbusters episode.

  21. Chocobopsu Says:

    so true
    so true

  22. xelnagav280 Says:

    halo fans, i think …
    halo fans, i think this music was just right for that episode.. =D

    it’s cool

  23. REGIFISHY Says:

    no it wasn’t …
    no it wasn’t actually in the game just a video for it :)

  24. T3HB1V Says:

    halo 3 mythbusters …
    halo 3 mythbusters 5 ftw

  25. nemesiskx Says:

    i never play halo …
    i never play halo so i dont know what the rest of you are talking about. seems like an odd music choice for a 3rd person shooter.

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