{"id":1069,"date":"2021-06-30T01:44:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-30T00:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/?p=1069"},"modified":"2021-06-30T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T10:27:00","slug":"morning-song-islands-swans-life-or-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roglacup.com\/klaus62\/2021\/06\/30\/morning-song-islands-swans-life-or-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning song# Islands # Swans ( Life or Death )#"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

fter dropping their gloriously goofy and endlessly inventive 2003 LP Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?<\/em>, the Unicorns became extinct. Following a brief resurrection as Th’ Corn Gangg, a live side project in which Unicorns songs were recast as backing tracks for MCs like Subtitle and Busdriver, multi-instrumentalist Nick Diamonds and drummer J’aime Tambeur announced they’d soldier on without guitarist Alden Penner (n\u00e9e Ginger) as Islands. To prove it wasn’t just another one of their bat-shit crazy antics, they leaked two mp3s: “Abominable Snow”, an epic about surviving a yeti sighting, and “Flesh”, which revealed a sweaty, sexy side to Diamonds’ and Tambeur’s songwriting. Both songs were outstanding and, just as important, sounded like the work of the Unicorns. (In fact, they were live staples in the band’s last days.) But when Diamonds explained they wouldn’t be on the new album and then gushed to Pitchfork about how the band’s record would be, of all things, inspired by Paul Simon’s Graceland<\/em>, it was anybody’s guess as to what Return to the Sea<\/em> would actually sound like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that, while Diamonds’ Graceland<\/em> references weren’t just snarcastic pranks, Return to the Sea<\/em> is a sprawling, gorgeous collection of pop songs that draws from disparate sources such as calypso, country, and hip-hop. The record also relies more heavily on organic sounds and structure than the Unicorns’ LP did: Where Who Will Cut Our Hair<\/em> rewarded listeners with unexpected eruptions in the middle of songs or flat-out rockers dropped off a sonic cliff into plaintive minor chords, Islands present a more linear approach in their arrangements. Songs like album opener “Swans (Life After Death)” propel forward, picking up steam to the point of bursting. Only after “Swans” has marinated for nearly seven minutes, for example, does Tambeur abandon his shuffling and stuttering beats for cathartic, straight-ahead drumming. Islands’ charm, then, is all wrapped up in the richness of the production: unusual instrumentation and tiny flourishes create dense compositions that demand repeated listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posted from: https:\/\/pitchfork.com\/reviews\/albums\/4170-return-to-the-sea\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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