On Vapours, their third album in roughly as many years, Islands throws out yet another curveball. Given that the melodic, quasi-African strains of 2006’s Return to the Sea somehow morphed into the aggressive, violin-driven progressive pop that filled every corner of last year’s Arm’s Way, the sharp turn hardly comes as a surprise. This time around, Nick Diamonds and company deliver a pleasant blend of sopping-wet synths, groovy beats and straightforward but addictive guitar flourishes.

On songs like “On Foreigner” or the excellent title track, the album gives the full-band treatment to the simple pop formula Diamonds mastered with Jim Guthrie on last year’s Human Highway project. Elsewhere, tracks like “Tender Torture” and “Shining” go full-on electro, with drum machines, echo-laden guitar leads and those oh-so-prominent analogue synthesizers.

All told, Vapours adds another piece to the Islands puzzle. It may not be their catchiest or most ambitious work and even veteran fans will need a few full listens to move beyond initial apprehensions, but it does have plenty of strong material. Perhaps most importantly, it preserves the band’s pervasive sense of lighthearted musical playfulness: “Heartbeat” is nothing but a failed AutoTune experiment until you notice that the ghastly technology is being used to twin Nick’s voice into a major third as he sings: “Cued up the major third/ but you don’t know, you just take my word.” Awesome.