Arm's Way

Nick Diamonds manages to get by despite losing bandmates. After leaving the Unicorns with Jamie Tambeur, his new band, Islands, made an immediate splash with the idiosyncratically baroque RETURN TO THE SEA. And now with the departure of Tambeur, Diamonds has persevered with a new lineup and a slightly more aggressive sound (guitars that occasionally overpower strings and keyboards, filling in the empty spaces with a bit of bite). His professed fixation on T. Rex serves him well on charged anthems like "Kids Don't Know Sh*t," which also feels like a belated response to Mott the Hoople's "All The Young Dudes." But it's the album's soaring qualities that elevate it beyond standard genre fare, even if a new coat of grit serves this band well.