The Mary Onettes‘ long awaited second album “Islands” will be released on Labrador records on November 4.

On “islands” we hear a band with more confidence, and the band dare to take their songs one step further in either directions. I was very excited about their self-titled debut from 2007 too, but “Islands” is a very different record. The sound is wider, the strings are more in front, the pop-songs are more pop, the sad songs are sadder. If you have heard their debut, the best reference-point to the sound of “Islands” is the song “Henry”, only with much more of everything…

Several of the lyrics touch themes of growing older, looking back, “wishing for life to go backwards forever”, and I’m wondering if this is some kind of album theme for “Islands”?

The album starts with the two ace singles “Dare” and “Puzzles”, continues with the amazing “Once I was pretty” (which matches the first two perfectly), and takes a step down in mood and tempo on the beautiful “A Cry for love”. Other favourites are the touching “The disappearance of my youth”,  “Century”, with the typical pounding toms we know from their debut, and the mid-tempo closing track “Bricks”. A perfect way to end an almost perfect pop album.

While my descriptions of their debut always included names of indiebands from the 80s, – Echo and the Bunnymen, New Order, The Cure, JAMC, – “Islands” sound like The Mary Onettes.

The Mary Onettes ‘Puzzles’ from Labrador Records on Vimeo.