Album Review: Low Island - 'If You Could Have It All Again'
Five years on from their inception, ‘If You Could Have It All Again’ is the debut full length offering from Oxford electro pop quartet Low Island. On the face of it, half a decade might seem like quite a long time for a debut to land but with four EPs under their belt it feels like more of a conscious decision to dip their toe in a few smaller pools before diving headfirst into the ocean of an album.
Sonic layering has always been a focal point for Low Island and you get that in spades here. For anyone familiar with Yeasayer, there’s common ground to be found between the two bands with their ‘if it sounds right, throw it in the mix’ style which gifts more on each listen.
After a slightly stumbling start, track two ‘What Do You Stand For’ is where the Rubik’s Cube of noise starts to sound methodical by virtue of a no-nonsense slab of heavy synth driven pop which could slide quite easily into the Tron soundtrack.
‘Don’t Let The Light In’ is rather ironically one of the brightest moment on the record and among the best on here. It glides across the tightrope between lounge and club music without ever leaning too far to either side which should mean it racks up the plays this Summer if all going well we’re allowed one this year.
The album never really dips in quality, it just turns down the amps and drops the tempo every now and then which at times resembles soothing meditation music. ‘In Your Arms’ for examples feels like you’re weightlessly floating without a care in the world.
I can’t quite escape the notion that ‘Who’s Having The Greatest Time?’ sounds like an Everything Everything or Friendly Fires mashup but it’s still an enjoyable listen. It’s perhaps a little unfair to compare like for like when there’s still enough originality to be found and it’s maybe more the style of the song rather than the music itself which feels like a close relative.
With so much to unpack in this album I feel like this review will only really skim the surface and I could have a totally different experience of it next week, but on first listen there’s much to love about ‘If You Could Have It All Again.’ Songs like the beautiful and slow building ‘Momentary’ or ‘Don’t Let the Light In’ don’t arrive overnight and I sense the band knew this when taking their time to anchor down at their debut.
Though I was a fan of their previous work, in particular their 2017 ‘In This Room’ EP, this new record is unquestionably the band’s strongest set of songs to date and it feels like a well crafted piece of art that will keep offering on each listen.
Words by Richard Cobb