Albums
Face Stabber
2019
Genre: Alternative
Release Date: 2019
By Linnie Greene
Reviewed August 28, 2019
On their absorbing and endearing new double album, John Dwyer's long-running psych-rock institution verges on self-indulgence for the first time.
At their best, Oh Sees songs evoke matter in flux. Their music hints at lurking violence, a lazy simmer always threatening to boil over. They’ve honed this sound for about 15 years under a series of similar monikers—as OCS, The Ohsees, and Thee Oh Sees, among others—with about an album a year since 2006’s . Despite dabbling in krautrock, psychedelia, and punk, they’ve remained remarkably consistent. This is to say: They sound unfailingly like themselves, and further solidifies their identity—raucous, driving, and atmospheric, a heady brew of weeded-out insouciance and wah pedals.