Canadian indie vets Islands are back with Islomania, which is their first album in five years and will be out June 11 via Royal Mountain Records.
It's a little surprising there's a new Islands album at all, as main man Nick Thorburn decided to quietly put the group into retirement after celebrating the 10th anniversary of their debut album in 2016. But after pursuing other interests in film and scoring, Thorburn began writing songs again. “At the time I still wasn’t sure what this new music was going to be, or if coming back to Islands even made any sense,” says Thorburn. “But once we started playing, it quickly became clear this would be the next Islands album.” Stockpiling over 50 songs, Nick teamed with producer Chris Coady (who produced 2009's Vapours) to make this album.
The first single is dancey indiepop number "(We Like To) Do It with the Lights On." Says Nick: "After quitting Islands in 2016, I briefly considered doing writing for others. I came up with the song title as a tossed-off joke. It seemed fitting with the kind of playful innuendo that seems to do well in the pop sphere. Once I started to flesh it out after booting up the band again, I realized it was mine, and for Islands only. I started it with the groove first, and built the melody off the top. This is like most of the songs on this record, which is new for me."
You can watch the video for the song, and check out Islomania's cover art (featuring actor/filmmaker Alex Karpovsky).
Tracklist:
1. Islomania
2. (We Like To) Do It with the Lights On
3. Carpenter
4. Closed Captioning
5. Set the Fairlight
6. A Passionate Age
7. Natural Law Party
8. Never Let You Down
9. Marble
10. Gore
