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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Return To The Sea
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 18 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 39 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Equator / Rough Trade
Release Date: 04 April 2006
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
The debut disc for the new band from former Unicorns members Nick Diamonds and J'aime Tambeur includes appearances from members of Royal City, Wolf Parade and Arcade Fire.
Also By This Artist: Arm's Way
Also On Metacritic
MUSIC: The Unicorns: Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?
Also On The Web: Islands @ MySpace Official Artist Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
All Music Guide
A rich, exciting, and emotionally deep sounding album that carries on the freewheeling spirit and sound of the Unicorns as well as that of the Elephant 6 bands of the late '90s.
Read Full Review >Billboard
The duo's current sonic incarnation favors melody over mayhem, and all the better for it.
Read Full Review >Filter
It's sprawling, ambitious pop music. It's just not perfect--not yet. [#20, p.92]
Pitchfork
Return to the Sea is a case of Diamonds and Tambeur yanking up their anchor and setting sail for new waters, enjoying the freedoms of exploration and discovery.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
A tighter, more controlled version of The Unicorns' wackiness.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
The Frank Zappa/Neutral Milk Hotel/Muppet Show vibe doesn't always jibe, but that's half the fun. [7 Apr 2006, p.63]
cokemachineglow
Those who felt like maybe they were starting to get Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? only to be left out by Unicorns’ sudden dissolution should be reassured that Return to the Sea is a more rooted and confident effort.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
Return to the Sea is filled with breezy, infectious melodies and quirky whip-smart lyrics; qualities that were sometimes lost underneath the Unicorns' shtick.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Return to the Sea reins in its eccentricities successfully enough to illustrate that the most understated risks can be the most rewarding.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
Islands have made a grand entrance into the indie-rock world. [Summer 2006, p.90]
Stylus Magazine
Thanks to some subtly disquieting diction it’s almost as disturbingly memorable as a cuddly cartoon blood orgy.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
Amid the highlife guitars and percussion that give Sea a delightful Afro-pop sheen... it's impossible to ignore the creeping conventionalism of the disc's best tracks. [Jun 2006, p.178]
New Musical Express
A one-way ticket to the outer limits of the solar system. [8 Apr 2006, p.39]
Q Magazine
At times Return To The Sea can be too clever for its own good. But there's also an ambition here that's hard to knock. [May 2006, p.126]
NOW Magazine
While the bouncy good-time foolery is charming enough in small doses, Islands' relentlessly giddy glee gets annoying awfully fast.
Read Full Review >Tiny Mix Tapes
There are some redeeming qualities, but for every success there are one or two failures.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 39 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
[Anonymous] gave it a10:
One of the best this year. A constantly fun and interesting listen. "Swans (Life After Death)" is one of the best songs this year.
Flinch Bot gave it a10:
Album of the year so far.
Kevin M gave it a9:
A pop masterpiece. This isn't the Unicorns back from the dead, Nick Diamond in a new project with a whole different mood, and sound than the Unicorns. This is a rich piece of work, it has probably the best pop song of the year (Rough Gem), a fantastic epic opener and some other great highlights such as "Don't Call me Whitney, Bobby", "Where There's A Whale There's A Whalebone", and "Bucky Little Wing". Definitely listen to this for some great organic pop and some great instrumentation. This album IS an adventure as someone else pointed out.
anonymous gave it a10:
YAY! The Unicorns are back!
miguel c gave it a10:
ill give it a ten if not for its feel good vibe but its its uniqueness. i havnt heard anything this adventurous in a while.
Heidi S gave it a9:
I really love this album. I'll have to agree with others that one or two songs are lacking (yes, track 10), but the rest are SO GOOD it totally makes up for it. I NEVER thought rough gem sounds like we didn't start the fire and now that you've said that I've gone back and listened to it and I still don't. Rough Gem is one of my favorite songs on this album and I think it's silly that people are comparing it to billy "i crash cars into houses" joel. the tempo is different, the instrumentation is different. the reason you can probably sing we didn't start the fire over the song is probably because the melody seems to maybe use roughly the same number of total notes (but i don't even believe this). but that's all. it just does not fit. that is one of the silliest comparisons i've ever heard. Anyhow, I think 2006 has so far been a pretty sad year in indie music, but this is one of the few good albums. I love it.
Jason L gave it an8:
The melody to track 4 is so close to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" it's distracting...you can literally sing along to "We Didn't Start the Fire" and it matches almost perfectly. Track 10 sucks. All subtle build-up with absolutely no payoff. But all in all, this is a really good album. I find some of the tracks to be terrific, many are good, a few are disappointing.
