''Return to the Sea'' is the first studio album by
Islands. It was released by
Equator Records
Equator Records or Equator Sound Studios was originally known as East African Records, owned by Afcot Ltd, situated in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1960, Charles Worrod launched Equator Sound Studios Ltd. along with the Equator Sound Band. Kenyan musici ...
on 4 April 2006.
[ "Rough Gem" was released as a single from the album. The remastered version of the album was released on 11 November 2016.
]
Critical reception
At 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 ...
, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 80 based on 18 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[
Tim Sendra of ]AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
gave the album 4 stars out of 5, saying: "On their debut record, ''Return to the Sea'', Montreal's Islands have crafted 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."[ John Motley of '' Pitchfork'' gave the album an 8.4 out of 10, calling it "a sprawling, gorgeous collection of pop songs that draws from disparate sources such as calypso, country, and hip-hop."][
''No Ripchord'' placed it at number 10 on the "Top 50 Albums of 2006" list.]
Track listing
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes.
Musicians
* Nick Diamonds – vocals (1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10), guitar (1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 10), clavinet (2), organ (5, 7, 9), synthesizer (5, 6)
* J'aime Tambeur – drums (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10), percussion (3, 4, 7, 8), drum machine (7)
* Patrice Agbokou – bass guitar (1, 3, 4, 7)
* Spencer Krug
Spencer Krug ( ) (born May 4, 1977) is a Canadian musician. He is the singer, songwriter and keyboardist for the indie rock band Wolf Parade and also records under the name Moonface. He has also performed with other Canadian bands including Sun ...
– piano (1), synthesizer (1)
* Dan Boeckner – guitar (1, 6)
* Jim Guthrie – guitar (1)
* Tim Kingsbury
Tim Kingsbury (born 1977) is a Canadian musician and member of the indie rock band Arcade Fire. He plays bass guitar, guitar, and occasionally keyboards.
Early life
Kingsbury spent his early years living in and around Guelph, Ontario. He comes ...
– bass guitar (1)
* Regine Chassagne
Regine () or Régine is a feminine given name. Regine is a German-French form of Regina, and Régine is a French form of Regina.
People with the first name include:
Regine
* Regine Heitzer (born 1944), Austrian figure skater
* Regine Hildebrandt ...
– accordion (2), piano (2, 5), steel drums (7), recorder (7)
* Richard Reed Parry
Richard Reed Parry (born October 4, 1977) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, best known as a core member of the Grammy Award-winning indie rock band Arcade Fire, where he plays a wide variety of instruments, often switching ...
– double bass (2, 5, 9, 10), background vocals (6), fiddle (8)
* Mauricio Lobos – charango (2, 5)
* Becky Foon – cello (2, 5, 8)
* Sarah Neufeld
Sarah Neufeld (born August 27, 1979) is a Canadian violinist who is known for her work with indie rock band Arcade Fire, with whom she is a former core member and currently a touring member. She has contributed to each of the band's studio alb ...
– violin (2, 5, 8)
* Pietro Amato – French horn (2, 10)
* Frank Lozano – bass clarinet (2, 8, 9), flute (5)
* Busdriver – vocals (6)
* Subtitle
Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...
– vocals (6)
* Steve McDonald – bass guitar (6)
* Kaveh Nabatien – cuica (7), trumpet (9)
* Michael Feuerstack
Michael Feuerstack is a Canadian indie rock musician, who has been associated with the bands Wooden Stars and Snailhouse.
Snailhouse was essentially a solo project with multiple contributing artists, including Julie Doiron of Eric's Trip, with ...
– lap steel guitar (8)
Technical personnel
* Islands – production, mixing
* Mark Lawson – production, engineering, mixing
* Steve Major – mixing assistance
* Nilesh Patel – mastering
* Nick Diamonds – string/horn/reed arrangement, layout
* Jamie Thompson - reed arrangement
* Richard Reed Parry – string/horn/reed arrangement
* Sarah Neufeld – string/horn/reed arrangement
* Pietro Amato – string/horn/reed arrangement
* Frank Lozano – string/horn/reed arrangement
* Patrick Francis Guay – layout
* Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscape ...
– cover painting ('' The Sea of Ice'')
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
2006 debut albums
Islands (band) albums