Reunion of Island Goose

Released

On Reunion Of Island Goose, Glasgow’s International Airport sound like a band, proper – while Tom Crossley is still at the helm, directing everything with typical understated flair, alongside key collaborators Stephen Aston and Annabel Wright, the performances feel more off-the-cuff and vibrant than on their debut, 2000’s Nothing We Can Control, with the kind of circuitous logic you can only really get from sharing music-making in real time. Opening with Crossley’s finest pop moment yet, “Association,” Reunion Of Island Goose continually surprises, full of left turns and sudden switches in mood and tone, borrowing from the best music – Morricone, Silver Jews, Orange Juice, Brazilian pop, German electronica – and achieving, on songs like “Jump On The Rack,” hallucinatory intensity.

Jon Dale