« MS Pick - The Gossip - Listen Up! - Lady 'House of Jealous Lovers' | Main | Indie Clerk Assholes »

February 23, 2006

I am a rock, They are the Islands...

In the instant classic Unicorns track "Tuff Ghost" off of their debut (and only, sniff) album, Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? this lyric always makes me laugh;

"I don't care about anyone else/ I'm a strong black man/ Looking out for myself"

Just a ridiculous statement coming from A: an indie pop band, B: an indie pop band from Quebec, and C: these guys specifically. I mean look at them, they're pale bordering on translucent.

Unicorns - "Jelly Bones"

But beyond silly B.I.G. references and ironic 40 tippage, iIt's pretty clear that these guys have a sincere love for black music and culture. This love manifested itself in the truly weird rhymes over Unicorns tracks side project Th' Cornn Gang, and is further displayed by ex-Unicorns' man Nick Diamonds new crew the Islands on their impending album, Return to the Sea.

Islands - "Rough Gem"
The Islands desire to emulate African pop structures Paul Simon style has been well documented, and the sunny melodies and skittish rhythms of this album standout are a testament to that. It was a hit with the crowd live, and comes as close as the album comes to casting off the long shadow of the uni-horned ones. It's funny diamond mine lyrics probably aren't a riff on Kanye's "...Sierra Leone," but I'm not as willing to write off the melodic similarities to Prince's Dirty Mind hit "When You Were Mine." I could see N. Diamonds as a Prince man.

I however, have no love for Prince and will gladly dance to techno music on his career's purple tombstone. Thus, I have included Cristina's mumbly synth version of the afforementioned track.

Cristina - "When U Were Mine"

See? Totally similar.

Islands - "Where There's a Will, There's a Whalebone"

As for rap music, its pretty hard to miss its influence here. You might pick up on it when the dark and interesting melody is completely derailed by alternating spitfire verses of Del tha Funky Homosapien-esque rhyme from Cornn Gang members Subtitle and Bus Driver. As much as i like the prologue and epilogue to the rap battle, this one just doesn't work for me. I'm all for trying new sounds and combinations in music, and am often willing to make excuses for a noble failure. But that said, it's still up to the song writer to make these combinations sound like an essential, organic part of the track.

A similar Canad-indie/ rap expirement was attempted on last year's Broken Social Scene cut "Windsurfing Nation" to better effect. It's not my favorite song or anything, but it's not as much of a stylistic trainwreck because the full on rap eruption both matches the beat set down in the earlier part of the song, and comes onthe heels of a Feist vocal that edges perilously close to hip hop delivery. When the song finally takes the plunge it makes more sense. In comparison, the hip hop shoehorned into the middle of "Where There's a Will There's a Whalebone" sounds totally out of place.

It's like mustard on an ice cream sundae.

Islands - "Swans (Life After Death)"

But rest assured, the Islands completely trounce BSS in the more prestigious "10 minute long epic" event. Whereas 'Scene album closer "It's All Gonna Break" weaves in and out of tempos at random, stunting any chance at the momentum needed to sustain attention over such a long song, "Swans..." is all build up for its first 7 minutes, stumbling forward with an infectious energy before FINALLY deciding to rock it out for its last three minutes. Absence of guitar licks makes the heart grow fonder. They sequence their albatross at number one too, which is ballsier. A decisive knockout, really.

See them on their victory lap before the inevitable return to the sea. Tour dates after the jump.

Posted by Jeff Klingman at February 23, 2006 03:32 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/153

Comments

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: