Island Intervals

The third album from Rhode Islander Joel Thibodeau under the Death Vessel name is one of the finest things Sub Pop has put out these last 12 months, and we're including the Mogwai album in that.

Understated, warm songwriting and un-showy production mask a record full of subtle touches and hidden depths.
• If the unmistakable voice of Sigur Rós's Jónsi Birgisson didn't already soar across the chorus of 'Iisa Drown' you'd probably still detect his hand at play in the production chair: Island Intervals shares the same sense of sonic detail and all-encompassing, blissful otherness that made the Icelandic space wizards ambient household names.

What Thibodeau does so beautifully is combine that feel with the homely, plaintive mood of Bon Iver'sFor Emma, Forever Ago to create an album of drifting, spacey, folk. It's the kind of record that rewards a dark room and headphones, or a long walk through a snowy town.