''Islands'' is the second studio album from Swedish

dream pop Dream pop (also typeset as dreampop) is a subgenre of alternative rock and neo-psychedelia that emphasizes atmosphere and sonic texture as much as pop melody. Common characteristics include breathy vocals, dense productions, and effects such as ...

band

the Mary Onettes The Mary Onettes are an indie rock/dream pop band from Jönköping, Sweden, signed to Labrador Records. To date, the band has released three full-length studio albums and four EPs. History The Mary Onettes were formed in 2000 in the Swedish town ...

. The album was released on 3 November 2009 in the United States, and a day later in Sweden. The album had to be re-recorded from scratch after lead singer Philip Ekström stated on the band's official website, "...I basically lost every song I've ever recorded with the Mary Onettes. My hard drive with all my music was stolen in my car one fine afternoon in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, the very same fine afternoon we came home from our US tour, the very same day I was feeling thrilled to come home and start the process of finishing our new album. Of course I had made a backup copy on my computer at home. But for some reason a power failure in the building made that hard drive collapse too. Unbelievable. I was speechless for days." The band played the

Primavera Sound Festival Primavera Sound (commonly referred to as simply Primavera) is an annual music festival held in Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona, Spain that takes place between the end of May and beginning of June. The first edition took place in 2001 in Poble Espan ...

in Spain in May 2008, and reconvened in the studio to start the recording process again in September. The band's ''Dare'' EP was released in April 2009, intended as a sampler of the ''Islands'' album. It featured two album tracks ("Dare" and "God Knows I Had Plans") and an exclusive non-album track ("Kicks"). Ekström said of the album's name: "The title ''Islands'' came up because I see the tracks on the album as small islands in different shapes and forms where every song is like a record of very own. Johan on Labrador Records suggested the same title without having heard me mentioning the idea, so that was a coincidence too good not to pursue. The songs are almost too personal and I've had a hard time playing them for friends. It's like all I want to do is keep them to myself".The Mary Onettes 'Islands' Due In November - StrangeGlue
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Reception

''Islands'' received mixed to positive reviews from critics. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the album holds a score of 66/100 based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

Track listing

Release history

Credits

* All songs produced and recorded by Philip Ekström and Henrik Ekström. * Recorded at the House Arrest Studio, Gothenburg, and Foundland Studio, Jönköping. * Strings on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 10 by Karin Hagström and Lina Molander. Arranged by Henrik Ekström and Philip Ekström. * Backing vocals on "The Disappearance of My Youth" by Ebba Sahlin, Isa Almgren, Majja Sahlin, and Agnes Evertsson. * Backing vocals on "Bricks" by Sara Mårtensson and Hanna-Maria Backvall. * Mastered by Erik Broheden at Masters of Audio, except "Century" mastered by Björn Engelmann at Cutting Room Studios. * Photos by Henrik Mårtensson; artwork by Peter Eriksson.

References

2009 albums The Mary Onettes albums Labrador Records albums {{2000s-indie-rock-album-stub