Ash reconvened and began recording their next album at Atom Heart Studios in New York City, with Wheeler acting as the main producer.

[2] Prior to the Australian trek, the band met up in a studio to work on some tracks that Wheeler had written in the preceding year.

He visited the Japanese islands Naoshima and Teshima, before going to Deià in Majorca, Spain, Santorini, near Greece, Lambay, Ireland, and ending at his home in New York City.

[14] "Annabel" evokes the band's earlier material; Wheeler wrote "Buzzkill" as a joke in an attempt to get his friends to laugh.

Wheeler had watched the Undertones play shows twice before, and realised how much the backing vocals for the track emulated their style.

[15] He met two of their members, Damian O'Neill and Michael Bradley, at a charity show; they subsequently contributed backing vocals to the song.

[5] Wheeler attributed some of the production work on "Confessions in the Pool" to what they had learned when making "White Rabbit" and "Arcadia" for the A–Z Series (2009–2010) project.

[13][16][17] The surf rock track "Don't Need Your Love" channelled latter-day Weezer, and featured a 1970s guitar solo.

was stylised after 1920s Ennio Morricone funeral music, and opens with a part that was reminiscent of the Animals' version of "The House of the Rising Sun".

[18] In July 2017, Wheeler said Ash were in the midst of working out a new record deal; they eventually re-signed with their former label Infectious Music.

[33] Classic Rock writer John Aizlewood said the album finds the band "in rude health, rediscovering and building upon what made them so appealing, while taking themselves to new places entirely.

He overall called the release "[a]nother fine album ... Islands is a fizzy sugar bomb of great tunes primed for an endless summer.

"[14] PopMatters contributor John Garratt wrote that the album was "every bit as consistent as Kablammo!," despite it being "just a tad less fun in spots."

He added that he was confused as to why the band hadn't surpassed their peers, such as Green Day and Weezer, before "remind[ing] myself that Ash had to crawl their way out of Downpatrick, Ireland first ... And by that yardstick, they've done more than pretty well for themselves.

[18] Under the Radar's Stephen Mayne viewed Islands as "cool, catchy, and a whole lot of fun", with Ash being "back on form."

He noted "an aching sadness" in a few of Wheeler's lyrics as "the passage of time comes to weigh heavily on a group no longer young.

"[34] Louder Than War writer Sam Lambeth said the album was "very much business as usual", though "even a band as free-spirited as Ash are not invulnerable to age, and Islands does show off their more mature side.

"[13] AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine also noted the tempo shift: "Everybody's pace slows once they leave their twenties, so the general deliberateness that characterizes 2018's Islands ... isn't a surprise, but the trio is otherwise light on their feet.