OXBOW : "Love's Holiday"

They have been at it for 35 years. A ragged blend of noise rock meeting angular punk explosion. Eugene Robinson is even more the center piece of the songs than ever before. This is a blessing and a curse as while Robinson has a distinctive voice, that carries his personality, I would never call him a great singer. He tries harder on more melodic songs like "Lovely Murk" but he is barely able to hold more than two notes together to form a melody as he normally emotes. In this regard he is more vocally on par with someone like Henry Rollins.  They have brought in choirs along with Lingua Ignota who lends her voice. She does better in the background than she does on her own work. Oxbow as a band has more prowess as songwriters than she does.  Though for this album they changed things up, and rather than Robinson writing the lyrics they built songs around , the music was written first. 

While Robinson claims all their albums have been comprised of love songs, this one is supposedly more focused on the theme, while often hiding it under the metaphor of nautical elements. I think Robinson is older and wiser , understanding his vocal limitations and in turn using his voice in a manner than makes the most of what he can do. He gets some help from Robert Joseph Manning jr of Imperial Drag fame on "1000 Hours" . The spacious mix helps give the sounds created here room to wander. Robinson's vocal has not direction and sounds like he is just talking to himself.  They take notes from Nick Cave's "Push the Sky Away" album on "All Gone" though lacking Cave's depth of evocative story telling. I do like the dark simmering tension the song creates.  Robinson mutters and whispers his way through things. 

The balance of tension and melody in "the Night the Room Started Burning" is very effective and creates a nice tapestry for Robinson to ponder over. There is a hint of country to "Million Dollar Weekend". Robinson's lament here reminds me of something you would hear from a drunk homeless person on the last bus of the night. It is almost like he is singing to a different song that was recorded. It is clear on this album that no amount of orchestral embellishment is going to make Robinson a better singer, so it is up to musicians of this band to work around him. 'the Second Talk' does this better, as he begins to caterwaul. There is a grunge like tinge to the song. 

"Gunwale" is more like something Tom Waits might have done if he was working with Brendan O'Brian. The choirs add layers to song with little direction . I will round this down to an 8, it sounds great, but is really spoken word performances dressed up by the noise rockers as an attempt to create transgressive pop music. It was a more enjoyable listen than I expected , I will see how these songs grow on me. If you are a fan of the band I am not sure how you will like this very polished and spacious mix that cleans the dirt off the noise they normally make which has been more refined here.