Islands, 'Vapours' (Anti-)

Canadian indie rocker finds his joy in Brooklyn.

Call it Nick Diamonds Gets His Groove Back. Former Unicorn Nick Thorburn went a bit dark and dreary on 2008's Arm's Way, but with Vapours, the transplanted New Yorker relearns his playfulness: "Heartbeat" gleefully busts out Auto-Tune, so if you've ever wondered what Kanye imagines when he listens to Vampire Weekend, here you go. The title track tickles a cruise-ship vibe, then flat out asks you to love it: "Hope I entertain, hopin' you get dancin' feet." It's not all sunshine -- "Disarming the Car Bomb" needs more grit, and "Shining" sounds pulled from bleaker times -- but Vapours is a welcome righting of the ship.

Comments

Got something to say?

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • No HTML tags allowed
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Use <!--pagebreak--> to create page breaks.

More information about formatting options

Are You Human?
If so, enter the four-letter code below.
Image CAPTCHA