Winter warmer

By this point the first single from the Islands' newest effort is probably old news to you. I'm going to post it anyway. Something about heartbreak tends to bring out the best in artists. Thorburn, the Islands frontman, is no exception. The basic algorithm for A Sleep & A Forgetting (this would be the album) proceeds as follows:

1. End your relationship in a heart-wrenching manner
2. Move to Los Angeles
3. Write a heart-wrenching album
4. Release this album on Valentine's day

I dare you to make it through this non-song without experiencing that special kind of longing... you know, that prolonged and filled with unfulfilled desires kind of longing. Actually, I'd rather assume that Penny (0:0:17) is just an analogy for how our heartbreaks never amount to as much as they seemed to at the time. Last Choice Self Help.

Islands - "This Is Not a Song" by Some Kind of Awesome

More stay in bed and cry it out music from Laws of Motion. Just promise you'll wait out the Cranberries-Oasis style entrance and listen to the whole song. Alright, maybe the song never gets much past that AND certainly falls far short of their self-described Radiohead desire. I'll direct you to the Onion here. I think it may be exactly their survey of 90s pop-rock stylings that I found so appealing. My jury is still out on this one, but there might just be something there when the forthcoming EP drops.

Winter by Laws of Motion

I could really go for an Upland Winter Warmer about now....