I also wanted to add (since i don't see it in the other reviews) that this cd was recorded in Iceland. Therefore, we are treated to a guest appearence (on at least one song) by a little known female vocalist from Iceland at the time known as Bjork. Now of course she is an international superstar. Don't buy the cd just for that though - she only appears as a back-up singer.


The best Current 93 album... and I have them all.   May 12, 2001
Alexiel (United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This album is also, along with Thunder Perfect Mind and All The Pretty Little Horses, one of their most accessible. Every song is dreamy, wispy, ethereal, like a touch of pale smoke. Organs, violins, icy, bleak vocals, twilight skies, tenebrae... this is an incredible album.


Superb! Tibet is wonderful   July 6, 2004
Randall Marshall (West Coast, USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I can only describe this music as an elegant masterpiece who's sound carries perfectly the feeling Current 93 expresses. Tibet is as godly in ISLAND as he is in any other C93 album; spellbinding, gracefully capturing, darkly bright and beautiful; moving. 5 stars.
I recommend Thunder Perfect Mind; All the Pretty Little Horses too.


Yummie lyrics   August 14, 2001
Melkor (San Diego, CA USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

It's like a happier version of Sopor Aeternus, without the circus music. The lyrics are more thought provoking, and less depressing. The music reminds me of some of the older Coil stuff on their "Unnatural History" CD's. Buying a Current 93 CD is like gambling. Sometimes you get all aces, and sometimes your hand is a dud. With "Islands", it's all aces. The CD has great, ethereal music, and lyrics that I get something new out of each time I hear them!


More electronic than any other C93 release   July 18, 1998
Renee L. Rosen-wakeford (London)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This CD was a collaboration between Tibet and HOH, and HOH's influence shows in the instrumentation (electronic for the most part) and the song writing. This CD shows Tibet both in serious mode ("The Dream of a Shadow of Smoke") and silly mode ("Crowleymass" and "Paperback Honey"). Also included are alternative arrangements of C93 classics such as the ubiquitous "Fields of Rape." Bjork sings back up vocals on one track.