Yet none of those records has quite fully captured the band's quirky, impulsive, raucously fun live-performance vibe. The studio-recorded records ("Lo!," "Sin Tax & Some Antics," "Swallow the Moon") have always seemed a bit too calculated and cautious; while the band's lone previous home-recorded album ("All Ages Show") was generally too loose and low-tech to do the songs justice.
With "Let's Decompose and Enjoy Assembling!," the band has put it all together. From the first, crackling notes of the introductory track to the fading final cadence of the album's closing ballad, "Let's Decompose and Enjoy Assembling!" sounds like the product of a group that has taken its own advice to heart.
Recorded on a home computer in the back room at EarCandy Music, the record clearly benefited from the band's slow pace of recording. The band literally threw everything and the kitchen toaster into the mix, messing around with arrangements until it all hung together just right. Fortunately, the most typical pitfalls of home recordings - bad mixing, lousy drum sound, over-application of effects - are generally absent here.
The result is a record that ranges far and wide, from contemplative piano balladry ("Grey Skies") to off-kilter prog ("The Other Hand") to balls-to-the-wall rock ("Surreal"). It's all held together by the familiar refrain of the Obes' multipart harmonies behind John Brownell's smiling tenor, Ian Smith's chiming keyboards, and Stu Simonson's ever-present lead guitar counter-melodies.
It'd take a hard heart to resist what the Obes have assembled here.
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