[7] Islands is the only studio album to feature the 1971–1972 touring line-up of Robert Fripp, Mel Collins, Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace.

[8] The bridge section is also taken from the King Crimson version of the song, performed by the original line-up, titled simply "Drop In" and later released on the live album Epitaph.

The original United States and Canadian album cover (as released by Atlantic) was the off-white Peter Sinfield painting - with coloured "islands" - which featured on the internal gatefold in the rest of the world.

[11] The album was re-released in 2010 as the fifth release in King Crimson's 40th Anniversary series, featuring new stereo and 5.1 surround mixes by Steven Wilson and Robert Fripp, Sid Smith sleeve notes and extra tracks and alternative versions.

AllMusic called it "the weakest Crimson studio album from their first era" that "is only a real disappointment in relation to the extraordinarily high quality of the group's earlier efforts.

[14] In The Rough Guide to Rock (2003), Chris Dinsdale wrote that, despite being "a little directionless", Islands advances the jazz-rock fusion that King Crimson last explored on side two of Lizard (1970), and comments that "Sailor's Tale" is a "masterful instrumental" that ranks among Fripp's finest moments.

"[15] A contributor to The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004) writes that the songs on Islands rank among King Crimson's most pretentious, with the exception of "Ladies of the Road", which "sets its groupie-adoration lyric to a lean, edgy blues.

"[23] In his book A New Day Yesterday: UK Progressive Rock & the 70s (2020), Mike Barnes describes Islands as "another oddity, encompassing sleazy R&B, pastoralia and pseudo-baroque", and deems it "generally more direct than Lizards", despite expansive moments like "Formentera Lady".