A Needed Remedy To A Painful Year, Local Band Islands Releases New Single ‘2020’ About The Pandemic

By Ameera Rosli  •  24 Feb 2022 in Features

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Wise people will always tell us not to harp on about the past but when the past entails a painful pandemic that caused a significant shift in our daily lives, it’s difficult to just move on and forget about it.

JUICE has covered the numerous plights expressed by local musicians throughout the Covid-19 pandemic that has altered the fabric of live music and performances even until now.

But the aftermath is still being felt and most of us are still not over it.

Local band, Islands happens to be one of the bands who decided to use songwriting and music as a means of catharsis in order to expel the helplessness and dread they felt during that time with their latest release, ‘2020’.

According to the band, “‘2020’ is a song about the existential crisis of going through our daily life. It also relates to the current world problems that are happening in our current generation especially with the global pandemic COVID-19 era.”

The song was written by Izelan Shahier in late 2019 and was recorded in the middle of the 2nd lockdown in Malaysia in 2020.

The song was recorded in Izelan’s bedroom alongside the current new band members which consists of Izelan (Lead Vocals, Guitar), Faris (Guitar), Sarah (Backup Vocals, Bass, Synth) & Yazid (Drums).

Watch the video below:

While the music video is a technicolour daydream with vignettes of different Malaysians filling their time with routine and occasional escapes from reality, the lyrics are actually quite morbid – which perfectly encapsulates our lives post-pandemic.

Since most of us have gotten accustomed to our hermit lifestyles, people are just too engulfed in their screens and the digital world to enjoy reality nowadays.

Understandably so, the internet was our coping mechanism during the pandemic since we used it to communicate with each other and help one another through financial turmoil.

But as restrictions began to loosen, we can no longer use the pandemic as an excuse to not severe our dependency to the vices of the internet.

The loop we were on continues to spin and we’re all just – to quote Islands – so f*cking bored.

So, lift up your spirits and listen to this track with your friends on a road trip somewhere.

It doesn’t have to be far but let’s just attempt to return to normalcy when spending quality time with each other sans phones and wifi didn’t feel like a chore.