ALBUM REVIEW: Love’s Holiday – Oxbow

OXBOW follow up 2016’s Thin Black Duke with the long-awaited Love’s Holiday; even though the world has changed forever in those seven years, if one thing remains that is that the music of OXBOW is still as powerful, challenging and above all inspiring as it always has been, and all this is typified with what is on offer on Love’s Holiday.

In keeping with the title of the record, the album is all about love and the songs that feature on here are definitely love songs but done in OXBOW‘s inimitable style and delivered with the devotion that band have always shown to their craft. From the instantly discordant urgency of the opening salvo of Dead Again all the way through to the closing and sublimely formidable but ultimately triumphant sound of Gunwale, Love’s Holiday is an album that carries on OXBOW‘s legacy of brilliant and thought-provoking music. Every single song is a high point and each is delightfully crafted and delivered with a soul-bolstering passion.

The masterful Icy White & Crystaline is one such example and mixes subtle electronic flourishes with a high-octane power to create a bulldozing track that is OXBOW at their finest. The hauntingly beautiful All Gone is another, with its sombre yet hopefully inspiring vibe resulting in a powerful listening experience. These two tracks are perfect examples of the quality on offer on Love’s Holiday but it has to be said that every moment on this album is beautifully crafted and delivered with so much power and grace, including even the quirky interlude ” “ which is delivered with the same gusto.

There are a couple of guest appearances on Love’s Holiday too and both give the songs they appear on an ethereal feel. Kristin Hayter of LINGUA IGNOTA provides enchantingly spellbinding vocals on Lovely Murk, and Roger Joseph Manning Jr (who has played with JELLYFISH and BECK) blesses 1000 Hours with a hazy choral soundscape and both of these compositions feel truly special indeed. In addition, there is also a choir, strings (the ones that feature on Million Dollar Weekend in particular work so well) and various other instruments appearing throughout the album to complete that vibrant feeling that engulfs the record, its sound, and what it is all about.

The band themselves are on vintage form with vocalist Eugene S. Robinson in particularly fine voice throughout the record. His range proves impeccable as it shifts from a throaty, passionate roar to a softer, almost spoken word tone as well as his luscious and soulful singing and he proves once gain just how important a singer he is as he does so. Robinson is ably aided on Love’s Holiday by the rest of OXBOW, with Niko Wenner‘s guitar playing sounding as intricately brilliant as ever and the band’s rhythm section of drummer Greg Davis and bassist Dan Adams delivering a masterclass in perfectly understated grooves that fit each track perfectly.

Love’s Holiday is an album that sits proudly in the OXBOW musical arsenal. It is deeply personal yet thoroughly accessible and relatable, all wrapped in the energy, hostility and vivacity that the band have always had. It’s a record that is packed full of simply brilliant songs that will undoubtedly become favourite OXBOW tracks both onstage and on record for the rest of time.

Rating: 9/10

Love’s Holiday is set for release on July 21st via Ipecac Recordings.

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