No Island
Better Days (Independent)

Guitar pop is hard to pull off, because melody, chops, and catchiness are the most prized commodities on the cheerfully anthemic end of rock ’n’ roll. No Island has no shortage of tricks up its collective sleeve, next to a heart that beats to sounds that recall the Eagles, Bruce Hornsby, Queen, and other antique radio rockers. (Kids, ask your grandparents what came before Kodaline.)

The sweet perfume of yacht rock hangs over most of debut album Better Days, and who doesn’t enjoy a shirtless sax player in the hotel windows of early-’80s music vids? Again, these dudes can play, with saxman James Wilfred Martin performing Clarence Clemons duty, while slap-happy bassist Jay Esplana is particularly impressive against Max Ley’s tight drumming.

The band boasts three lead singers, including Esplana, keyboardist Andy Rice, and versatile guitarist Keith Sinclair. Unfortunately, they all have the same voice: high, adolescent, and slightly strained. The June-moon lyrics do leave the love stuff occasionally, for “Buzzards” and the optimistic title cut, but the words are all overly familiar.

Everything is carefully crafted, with lots of harmonic shifts and stylistic changes to add colour and musical cred. But the clever stops, tempo changes, twin-guitar attacks, and stacks o’ vocal harmony sometimes seem there for themselves, not to serve songs that, for all their evident effort, remain indistinctive. The sterile recording lacks ambient vibe, and throughout, the band seems to be dutifully trying on various musical hats, ranging all the way from the Knack to Nick Gilder, although there’s no one hit here to wonder at.

The tunes are lacking, but the arrangements kill. So maybe they just need to shop at a different hat store.