Once upon a time, there was a band that refused to be serious. I say once upon a time because this band was in fact The Unicorns, and though they were horse haters and people too they were not forever and their time passed. But like any other fairy tale this one could not be left unhappily ever after. The dissolution of The Unicorns was shortly followed by the formation of Islands, and everyone knows Islands are forever.

Formed around the ineffable core that was Nicholas Thorburn (aka Nick Diamonds) and Jamie Thompson (a.k.a. J’aime Tambeur), the band released their debut album “Return to the Sea” in april of 2006, at the closure of a north American tour. Return to The Sea was an admirable album and enjoyed by many. At the same time, it sounded a lot like the Unicorns still and would have been fairly difficult to seperate from either of the two LP’s realeased by that cognomen if it had still had the backup vocals of guitarist Alden Penner (aka Alden Ginger) who did not make the Islands transition.

But you probably knew all of that, didn’t you? After all, wikipedia exists.

What you might not know is that “Arm’s Way” is the new Islands album, and that it was specifically constructed for your destruction. To put it simply, the nature of this album is rock. Rock in its purest form. Lyrically, it resembles the consistant allusions to split infinitives, album titles, and former bands that Destroyer is famous for - although it is entirely too reptitive (in the good way!) to offend non-Destroyer fans. Musically, the album is really all over the place. Example: in track 9, We Swim, the opening chords to Led Zepplin’s Stairway to Heaven are sampled. At the same time, a number of old Unicorns NATs (read: non-album tracks), are covered(?) in such a way that they are completely unrecognizable to all but the most feverant Unicorns fans. Most notable amoung these covers is track 4, Abominal Snow, which is an ancient Unicorns that I never really appreciated before.

The album is the best non-John Darnielle thing I’ve seen this year. The flow is smooth, and more than half the songs could be a “single” or whatever that means. At the same time, if you’re just going to get on some sort of p2p website and get a handful of songs there are probably some songs you’re going to want to skip. Tracks 8, 10, and 12 (read: In the Rushes, To a Bond, and Vertigo (If it’s a Crime)) are all 7+ minutes. Good songs, but not ones that will send you. If you’re looking for songs that will fill you with saline and send you blue, blue, blue back into the atmosphere, you’ll want to check out the following: J’aime Vous Voire Quitter and Abominal Snow, with honorable mentions going to Creeper, Peices of You and I Feel Evil Creeping In.

All things considered, the album is a 9 out of 10. A couple of songs could have done with some editing, but they are more than made up for by the rest of the album. And since Island are forever, we should all be looking forward to what is yet to come.