Album Review: Low Island - 'Life In Miniature'
An 11-track eclectic pop album was released by Oxford four-piece Low Island. ‘Life In Miniature’ is a synth-heavy eccentric pop album with hazy soundscapes and an immersive sound that is ever-surprising but undoubtedly Low Island.
Low Island’s album opener ‘Goodbye Bluefin’ is a contemporary pop track consisting of a soft soundscape and almost whispering vocals. The jazzy drum compositions we hear on the album opener continue on single ‘Can’t Forget’, a song that takes us on a sonic journey filled with colour and powerful, half-spoken vocals. The song is an instant success, a warm and grand soundscape that fills the room with its subtle yet decisive musical components. Song number three, ‘Kid Gloves’, hints at influences of disco with its shimmering synths and rather uplifting rhythm. For a moment there we are being transcended into a time when brightly coloured eye shadow and glitter suits are the fashion of the moment. We are only three songs in, yet Low Island already prove how versatile their sound and personalities are!
The album is a present, a pleasant surprise, a sonic photo album that portrays a three year long journey of accelerated change that felt like a lifetime. “Leaving home, losing loved ones, falling in love, trying to make sense of it all. Whilst it’s not necessarily a ‘pandemic record’, it does look over that period of time in which big life changes happened, and happened faster than they would have done otherwise.” Commented the band on their brand new album. On ‘Forever Is Too Long’ we hear the heartache that came from those life changes, translated into a pensive sound and heart wrenching vocals. ‘Forever Is Too Long’ brings down the tempo of the album a little before we dive back into the disco era with the carefully crafted ‘Robin’. The track's synthy rhythm hints at a commercial pop sound the band luckily shakes off again on next single ‘You & Me’. This one is a fast paced indie pop track with a welcome and upbeat mixture of sounds we would love to dance along to while in the middle of an enthusiastic audience of fans at a Low Island gig!
The title of the thumping ‘Words Are Out Of Reach’ instantly inspires and gives away its lyrical greatness, the song is an open-hearted track with soft vocals against a reflective musical backdrop. We do find that slow burner ‘Come A Long Way’ could have made for a nice closer, as we up the tempo once again on another favourite; ‘Wasn’t For Nothing’. It is the illuminating sound and narrative that make this track an easy-listening one, an unadorned but determined indie pop track with hazy vocals. ‘Into The Blue’ announces the end of this listening party, a subtly thumping track with alienated vocals that sound almost as if they are hesitating to continue. We hadn’t listened to much Low Island before, but their surprise of a second album made us realise we had been missing out. The band have not created one sound, but a scala of sounds that are all undoubtedly Low Island, on the album’s title track they paint the Low Island picture once more and it's ever so enchanting. ‘Life In Miniature’ is short but sweet, a subtly theatrical synth pop lullaby that feels like a hug from a friend you haven’t seen in a while.
But really, that’s what all their songs feel like; a comforting hug, or a friend you haven’t met before, someone that instantly feels familiar. Low Island have clearly been inspired by Radiohead and Glass Animals, they proved their worth with their 2021 debut album ‘If You Could Have It All Again’ and prove they haven’t lost any of their magic on ‘Life In Miniature’. They potentially even gained more of that magic by showing they can’t be put into one box and creating their own, a box that is never just one shape and always slightly different.
Words by Laura Rosierse
