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Oxbow, "The Narcotic Story"
While The Narcotic Story is not Oxbow's best, there are some great songs on it that refine their bluesier side but there is not as much of the heavy Oxbow that has flexed its muscles on previous releases. However, it is far from a bad album and certainly will not disappoint those who have enjoyed their output so far.
Oxbow get right into the thick of things with "The Geometry of Business." Its mixture of raw bar room brawl blues sound with the agony of daily existence found is strongly indebted to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, particularly their first few albums and EPs. Throughout The Narcotic Story it is hard not to insert your own Cave-style "Yeah" into many of the songs. Although Oxbow are musically exploring a similar style as the Bad Seeds, they do not slip into pure copycat mode. Oxbow's distinctive stamp is all over the music and Eugene Robinson's vocals are a world away from Cave's croon. His yelping style dispenses with clarity (I honestly have little clue as to what he is singing) but his delivery is absolutely brimming with emotion. It can get tiring after a while, not that it is irritating but that it is mentally tiring to listen to a man screaming out his anguished thoughts for 45 minutes.
There is also a very strong cinematic feel to The Narcotic Story: the use of string sections throughout the album soften the burly and masculine nature of some of the songs. "She's a Find" could be a tough listen were it not for the strings and piano which allow the band to pull back and explore the song fully over its nine minutes. I did find this track a little clichéd and cloying on first listen but it has proven to be one of the better moments on The Narcotic Story once I got into it. The album sounds great in terms of production, these more restrained songs need a sensitive touch in the studio and thankfully that is what they got.
Some of the album does get too derivative. "Down a Stair Backward" and "Frankly Frank" are both based around fairly standard blues structures but without any elements of innovation, only Robinson's singing makes them stick out at all and even at that these are not his best performances. These less than spectacular tracks are only the exception, most of The Narcotic Story is solid but unfortunately the flow of the album is disrupted by these songs. For the moment skipping these songs makes a big difference but considering I found it hard to get into some of the other songs, there is hope that they will grow on me too.
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