Customer Reviews

Song Islands

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Song Islands is like a tangerine without the tang, its still really good and tasty, but it lacks that wholesome bite, most likely because it came from a slew of 7" singles rather than a straight shot set of recordings. This is still a really good album, but the Glow Pt2 is still better.The highlight of this album is most certainly the track titled "The Moon". Acoustic guitar mixed with heavy, low end piano makes this track complete. Phils sound is excellent. Buy all of these albums.

This is earnest, experimental but unaffected noise pop. Lo-fi genius. This album has some old ones, some new ones, and some new versions of old ones. Phil Elvrum's boyishly sweet voice and the spontaneous feel of these tracks makes it sound like a recording of a kid fooling around and banging things in the band hall. Songs by The Microphones often sound like experiments in sound, with an innocent, Modest-Mouse-style voice singing pop melodies to smooth it out.

I was afraid it would happen, but by this point it was official: I had become a Microphones obsessive. Not just a fan, a fanatic. While perusing the K records website, I found myself wanting everything associated with the Microphones, even non-music stuff like the button, T-shirt, and pennant (sadly, no longer available).

Not that this derides the quality of music found on Song Islands (or Island Songs, if you happen to be the proud owner of a Japanese import copy). While definitely not as cohesive as a full-album effort like The Glow, Pt. 2, or even It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water, this collection of various singles released over the years by Elvrum and company is quite charming in its disconnectedness. Unlike the band's albums, this one benefits from "shuffle" play, allowing one to experience each song on its own merits and not as part of a whole. Although, listened to in order (they are arranged chronologically), it allows one to examine the growth and development of one of indie rock's finest performers.

The songs on Song Islands range from the campfire singalong "I Can't Believe You Actually Died" to two separate versions of "The Moon" (officially found on The Glow, Pt. 2) to the next rendition in the Glow series, "The Glow Pt. 4." Released primarily as a appetizer for the mother-of-all concept albums, Mt. Eerie, this career-spanning retrospective was more than enough to satisfy this Microphones fan until the full meal arrived.

OK, you have somehow found out about the Microphones. I know this because you would not otherwise have accessed this 1 web page among the millions of web pages on Amazon. Now you must follow a simple two step process. First, go press the little "purchase" box on "The Glow Pt 2." page. If you have already done this and are impressed by what you hear (as is only appropriate) you should press the same box for this album.
The reason behind this process is as follows: "The Glow pt 2" is one awesome album. And, if after listening to it, you wonder how the heck Phil Elvrum came upon his unique perspective, you should pick this up as well. In short, its a collection of 7 inches that comprise Phil's own "Behind the Music".
This is not to say "Song Islands" is not a great album in its own right. Songs like "Lanterns" and the acoustic "The Moon" rank among the best The Microphones have released thus far. And this album also shows you the beginnings of Elvrum's off beat fascination (the Storm) and some experimentation with children as vocalists.
In short, this album is enough to satiate those of us who hungrily await Elvrum's next new full length, but pales next to the cohesiveness of "The Glow pt. 2". Perhaps, Elvrum knew this. After all, they are "Song Islands".

I first heard the Microphones on a mixtape on a roadtrip and got really excited by the idea of liking a band again (as opposed to a dj or a laptop-er). I picked this up first because I found it cheap and although I was really excited about some of the songs, there is a lag in the quality of the music towards the end. There are really great songs though. Phil Elvrum is like an elf with heartache. The title and several songs encourage it, but there is the feel of latent magic and salty air on this album and anyone who enjoys this disc should check out a book called "Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula LeGuin and the new Zelda game for Gamecube. "...Earthsea" is the archtypical adventure/fantasy story of the boy who goes off to school to learn wizardry, involving a lot of island hopping and soul searching. "Zelda: Wind Waker" takes the Zelda story on an ocean adventure and has probably the best drawings of any videogame I've ever seen. More earnest than either of those, I seriously recommend some magic realism: Authors like Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and maybe Umberto Ecco, but not "Island of the Day Before".