It might be important to know about the Unicorns to fully appreciate Islands (pretty much the same band). But then again, it might not. While the Unicorns’ Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone? was a masterpiece of childish lo-fi indie pop rife with cheap keyboards and drum machines, Return to the Sea is much grander in scope.

Opener Swans (Life and Death) is a nine and a half minute indie rock epic that muses on the afterlife (and being thirsty when you die) with a climax of fuzzed guitar solos. It’s followed by the baroque-pop march of Humans which comes complete with a brass coda. The dark, urgent groove of Where There’s A Will, There’s a Whalebone features a rap section. Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby and Jogging Gorgeous Summer play heavily with a bouncing calypso beat (two years before Vampire Weekend would debut, mind you). Strings moan along with the chirping synth in Tsuxiit. Volcanoes is a country honky tonk song about the end of the world.

And despite the breadth of its sonic palette, Return to the Sea is a surprisingly cohesive record, even opening the last song with the same keyboard riff as Swans, played double time. The songs, disparate though they seem, are tied together by Nicholas Thornburn’s talent for juxtaposing the playful and the morose (a shining aspect of Who Will Cut Our Hair… as well).