Islands - Hallways

"Hallways" is the most upbeat song on Islands' new album A Sleep & A Forgetting. The jaunty piano and tambourine somehow make this song irresistible and worthy of repeating. It's a fun track on an otherwise lugubrious album. Not that it's a bad thing to put out an album like this, but it requires the listener to be in the right mood to be able to listen from start to finish. However, there is good reason for the album to be so moody as Nick Thorburn explains:

“This album is far more personal than any I’ve made before. I left New York after the end of a relationship and came to Los Angeles. There was a piano where I was staying and that’s where I wrote these songs. This record deals with loss, with memory and forgetting and with dreaming. I started writing it on Valentine’s Day and it’s coming out on Valentine’s Day.”

You can stream the album on soundcloud. It's out next week, Feb.14 on Anti Records. You can preorder it here.

The Winter That Isn't Mix

I hope that in making this I jinx the mild 40 degree weather and we can finally get some snow. But for the time being, it looks like this is the winter global warming made. I like my seasons to be distinct, thank you very much. I've come to expect winter mixes to be sparse, pretty, and down tempo. As I made my own, I realized it was more in tune with my restless temperament and the current weather than that gorgeous silence a fresh snowfall brings. Hope you enjoy it, whatever the weather may be.

Download ZIP

1. Islands - This Is Not A Song
2. Cold Specks - Holland
3. Matt Pond PA - Amazing Life
4. Big Harp - Everybody Pays
5. Dead Man Winter - Nicotine
6. Yukon Blonde - Choices
7. Fort Frances - The Lowlands
8. Boca Chica - Snow Angels
9. World Atlas - The Winter Stories
10. The Gertrudes - Wind from the South
11. Hip Hatchet - Coward's luck
12. Boy Without God - The Snow Speaks
13. Blake Mills - Wintersong
14. Jenny O. - Won't Let You Leave (Spirit Animal Remix)
15. Coeur de Pirate - Wicked Games (Weeknd cover)
16. Kris Orlowski - Your Move
17. Mina Tindle - Bells
18. Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Snowship
19. Decibully - I Want
20. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bats in the Attic
21. Anna Ternheim - Walking Aimlessly
22. of Montreal - Wintered Debts