01/04/10 – Captains Rest – ISLANDS**Cancelled** – Glasgow

When Jamie Thompson and Nick Diamonds started their second post-Unicorns collaboration-- the first was Th' Corn Gangg, remember?-- it made perfect sense that they should call it Islands. With breezy calypso rhythms, honeyed country-acoustic guitars, bubbly/silly synthesizer effects, and summery melodies, their debut, Return to the Sea, was a wonderful getaway soundtrack, obscuring its death-haunted lyrics with bright arrangements and rich, coconut-scented production. On Islands' second album, however, storm clouds descended: Arm's Way found the band down a member-- Thompson amicably departed before its recording-- yet ballooned into a six-piece, and the bloat was audible. Melodies (previously the shivery highlight of their songs) were buried in meandering guitar solos, baroque, melodramatic strings, and gloomy, silvery keyboards for a dark, proggy effect that bled the band of much of its fun and levity.

The good news is that the clouds seem to have parted; on their third album, Islands are sunny once more. Perhaps it's due to the return of Thompson, back in the fold after his one-album hiatus, or just a product of stripping the instrumentation down to its most basic structure (in many cases, just synths, drums, and guitar) in service of memorable tunes, but Islands have made a welcome return to form. While those hoping for Return to the Sea's Afro-Caribbean flourishes and guest rappers will be disappointed, Vapours' comparably spare synth-pop is replete with the juicy hooks and major-key bounce that were so lacking from their last effort.