OXBOW
Love’s Holiday (Ipecac)
‘Straightforward’ and ‘accessible’ are not adjectives which could have been accurately flung at the Oxbow of old. Love’s Holiday is not exactly either of those things, but relative to the howls, yowls and angularity of early material, it certainly represents a departure – deliberately so, according to guitarist Niko Wenner (“Moving toward clarity and contours of pop-adjacent music was conversely the most transgressive thing we could do at this point in our career”).
This stylistic evolution extends beyond the type of punchy songwriting of the likes of Icy White And Crystalline (with Eugene S. Robinson’s vocal delivery as close to typical rock singing as it’s ever been), to the inclusion of a 15-voice choir on a number of tracks, which lends melodic depth and emotional heft – not least on All Gone, a mournful love song which could have fitted neatly onto Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree.
Ironically, after 35 years as a band, Oxbow might have just delivered the album that best serves new listeners as an entry point to their back catalogue.
words HUGH RUSSELL