So let's assess the environs in which the Montreal sextet, Islands, will unleash Arm's Way (the band's clever play on how Canadians pronounce the phrase "harm's way") upon the world. Their first album cemented the long-known fact the white dudes like to borrow their aesthete from traditional and contemporary African music alike. A two-for-one combo came with Nick Thorburn's (known previously as Nick Diamonds) criticizing indie pop blog favorites Vampire Weekend. With their "we do Paul Simon's Graceland better than you" schoolyard taunts levied, Thorburn and crew soldiered past their excellent cosmopolitan debut. Jaime Thompson (a former Unicorn like Thorburn) left the band after he helped sequester any glimmering hope of the Unicorns coming back (no Unicorns songs on tour please!). Despite moving from the small indie label Equator to Anti-, the band's followup to the genre-hopper Return to the Sea feels more settled than epic, more afflicted than jaunty. Despite the traumatic artwork for Arm's Way (a bombastic depiction of a bloody vagina post-birth) the music takes more nods from what's inside - a modicum of '80s and '70s pop and pseudo-spiritual influences.This collection of sometimes grievous pop tunes continue Thorburn's fixation with the dark corners of his/our psyche - rocks he turned over with glee for the Unicorns and Islands' inaugural disc. Where those previous releases whisked over their dark lyrical themes (death, unctuousness, lust, greed, and self-loathing) with a pithy abandon Arm's Way is clearly the dramatic second act counterpoint to Return to the Sea's glimmering pop.Thornburn has stated that he's been listening to a lot of T-Rex recently and the new album's penchant for chugging guitar rock glam swaying to a theatrical heartbeat on songs like lead single 'The Arm' and 'Kids Don't Know Shit' push his listening habits into his own art. Panging strings and upward coils of guitar burst into the ether on 'The Arm', ultimately falling to the ground for a march, then a hop and skip forward (rinse and repeat). Its one of the more rambunctious songs on an album that tends to drop some of its experiments into the musical quicksand of familiarity and tedium by the end.On the breathless bass sax stomp of "Pieces of You" the song's dark lyrics (stuff about the protagonist's body parts in a pit hemorrhaging) aren't as morbid as they read on paper. The same holds true on Arm's catchiest track, the orbiting pop of 'Creeper.' The lyrics set the scene well: "Right from the start I was stabbed in the heart / Didn’t know I wasn’t breathing, didn’t know I had been bleeding / Opened the door, thought I was alone / But someone was hiding in the darkroom of my home." Bass saxophone again plays the part of the unseen villain or the protagonist's niggling personal demons. Piano tinkles fill out the sound but the clockwork precision and unexpected steel drum teases are keep it moving along.'Abominable Snow’ (a song that has been around since The Unicorns) runs at a breakneck speed with angular guitars crunching over lilting strings. About halfway the guitars climb those "snowy climes of Canada" before a syncopated vocal breakdown worthy of Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach or barber shop quartets. 'Life in Jail' starts the second half's slow trod into the pop trenches as Thorburn's protagonist sings about wanting to "live my sedimental life sedentarily." Its a brittle song awash in mournful strings and splashes of cymbal before the pace quickens mid-song for a blistering finish.'In the Rushes' is reminiscent of the Unicorn's "Jellybones" with plinking strings and glam rock guitars. Thorburn's voice swings in violent tizzies between a hushed whisper and a high-pitched screech. It all ends in the usual Islands fashion - Technicolor harmonies, nimble guitars, and saccharine glockenspiel. Songs like 'We Swim' 'To A Bond" are stately and serve as serviceable tone pieces but as stand alone songs they sag under their own weight. I have to say the latter is a perfect late night tune."I Feel Evil Creeping In" gets sinister to the point of being goth ("In the back of my mind I want to do bad things I want to be unkind / When I'm in my room I love the shadows"). Thorburn pushes people out of the way and the audience will surely feel alienated if not disappointed. If you expected Return to the Sea Part II you best be warned but please don't skip it. The closing three part coda, "Vertigo (It's A Crime) is one of the darkest songs Islands have written but if you unlock its death knell labyrinth and the album it bookends, you may find some surprising elements to enjoy. 77%[Download Islands Arm's Way]Links Islands [myspace] [official] [record label]