Island Family

The fifth full-length from Pictish Trail, the mercurial psychedelic pop project of Scotsman Johnny Lynch, Island Family finds the musician thinking about big-picture items like nature and the individual, and ultimately challenging the notions of both an idyllic countryside and the ability of man to truly function as an island. (Lynch lives on the rural Isle of Eigg, where since moving he built a house, started a family, founded record label Lost Map Records, and launched a music festival.) These contemplations were born from over a year of being island-bound, with touring and other activities off the table due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it returns longtime Pictish producer Rob Jones (The Voluntary Butler Scheme), Island Family is less spacy and synth-friendly on average than its predecessor, Thumb World, opting for buzzy guitars and darker hues while retaining Lynchs trademark whimsicality and unpredictability. The ominous title track establishes this dingier palette with coarse electronic beats and a confrontational vocal delivery before arriving at a circular, singsong-ier B section. Meanwhile, lyrics concern themselves with ghosts, cemeteries, and rituals. Mixing together bloopy synths, grungy guitars, and harmonized vocals, "Natural Successor" maintains the minor-key feel that dominates the album but not without jolting exceptions. The next two tracks, "The River It Runs Inside of Me" and "In the Land of the Dead," for instance, rely on quirky, video game-like keyboard timbres, strings, and stream-machine effects, among other components, including, in the case of the latter, driving beats that carry along the darker sound. The bells and echoey, watery keys of the brief "Thistle" precede the albums one lush anthemic psych-popper, "Melody Something," before industrial sounds re-emerge on "Nuclear Sunflower Swamp" ("I plant the seeds tonight/Watch flowers rising into the black"). Alienating and cathartic at once, Island Family ends on the collage-like tech satire "Remote Control" for a shared cabin fever experience. ~ Marcy Donelson