LAMBCHOP - OH (OHIO)

Listening to "Oh (Ohio)" by Nashville alt-country stars Lambchop was certainly an eye-opening experience; as the album cover might suggest, there is a sensuality in Kurt Wagner's voice which seems to come from the music of Barry White, or Al Greene, rather than conventional country.
This interesting fusion of influences makes Lambchop sound simultaneously contemporary and traditional, easily evocative of both the living room of a smoking, seducing indie scenester, or the truck cab of Texan trucker driving through snow and night.

Wagner's vocals are never rushed, soothingly laconic and drowsy, and this marries well to the deceptively lazy sounding music. However, while it's not an album to make the pulse race, it's certainly wonderfully orchestrated; each whispery strum of a guitar and hissing beat of a drum adds to the overall effect of the musical massage that is "Oh (Ohio)". From the opening utterance of the album title, on first track Ohio, the listener feels like they are lowering into a hot tub for the ears. A very lovely album.

By Steven Garrard

Format: Album
Rating: 8/10
Release Date: 6/10/08
Label: Merge
www.myspace.com/lambchopisaband

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