October 2008 Archive |
 |
Lambchop
OH (ohio)
Review By Chris Drabick
It’s a real shame that Nashville’s Lambchop has never garnered much of an American audience. Kurt Wagner and his (many) cohorts are semi-stars in Europe, while their playful country-soul, always highlighted by Wagner’s wonderful croak of a baritone, plays in mostly obscurity in their home country. If you’ve missed them, as most have, you’ve missed the near funk of Thriller, the Curtis Mayfield homage of Nixon and the stream-of-consciousness double album Aw C’mon/No, You C’mon. In between, Wagner and his quiet crew have never released an outright dull album, always playing with convention but never sacrificing melody. OH (ohio) is the next in line of the ‘chop’s now-expected brilliance, and they deliver yet again.
The record finds the band turning to a producer other than homegrown Mark Nevers for the first time in a dog’s age (Nevers has since produced lots of notable acts, joining a roster of ex-choppers like Paul Burch and Deanna Varagona to make a name apart from the band). Roger Moutenot (Yo La Tengo, Sleater-Kinney) doesn’t toy with standard-issue Wagner much here, and allows the band plenty of room to play to their orchestral strength on standouts like glacial “Popeye”(which builds to an unexpectedly funky but satisfying climax) and the brilliant (on many levels) “National Talk Like a Pirate Day.” It’s tough to assert that OH (ohio) is anything but pretty pro forma Lambchop, as it echoes lots of what has made the band great in the past. However, what worked in the past still works plenty great in the now, and more’s the pity if you miss this one as well.
|
