Austin Sound

There is some baggage tucked into Oh No Oh My’s body of work. The console is full of a slew of television commercials; the glove compartment, a contest for a Mr. Gatti’s jingle; and in the trunk, the band’s own take on their latest album. People Problems is a causeway of sophisticated indie-pop awash with ever-unfolding beauty, struggle, and tension, yet in interviews with the band, the songs on the album are simply about “slitting a girl’s throat” or “going crazy”. Here Oh No Oh My faces the near-impossible task of crafting something commercial out of material that is inherently challenging, like finding one’s place in the world or death or relationships - topics that abound within People Problems’ palette. Problems shoves the band into a new era. Though the quartet resorts to its characteristic shock-factor appeal at times, Oh No Oh My fails to undermine the complexity of its music. On their second full-length, lyricists and multi-instramentalists Greg Barkley and Daniel Hoxmeier, drummer Joel Calvin, and keyboardist Tim Regan stand unflinching and People Problems finds the band sufficient in and of its music. The album, mixed at Spoon’s recording house Public Hi-Fi, is full of impressive guest appearances including Scott Brackett’s (Okkervil River) lovely trumpet and Miranda Brown of Crooked Fingers. Even still, it’s the band’s carefully constructed rises and falls — its core of opposing traffic — that gives Problems life.

People Problems begins with a hush of vocals that umbrellas over an instantly infectious melody. At first listen, the retro-pop opener “Walking Into Me” could be mistaken for a love song. When the realization comes of what Barkley is really speaking of - a person consumed by one’s own vices to the point of self-destruction and alienation from those who “stay with you so long” - it catches the listener off guard. It’s utterly chilling when Barkley presses on: “in spite of all this great hostility, walking into you was the best thing I could do,” while the song continues with a Friday-I’m-In-Love-esque kick out. Barkley’s voice acid-washes the air, continuing to purport the carefree attitude of beach dancers in cone bra bathing suits. If only they knew what they were dancing to. It is in this tension that Oh No Oh My flourish.

“I Don’t Know” seems to be the answer to “Walking Into Me.” Barkley describes the existential dilemma of carrying on as a person on a planet that “revolves around a sun that’s lost in a sea of deeper blackness,” and Regan’s keys resound with a lost-in-space disposition. This paralyzing question carries the song through a gradual paradigm shift, as Calvin’s steadily endearing drum builds with intensity. The guitar provides a necessary lift as Barkley sings, “I want you by my side tonight,” and the strings provide the fabric for such a heart change.

“So I Took You” bumbles with an upbeat guitar strum and surging strings oscillating between a flutter and a quiver. Kelley Mickwee (The Trishas) compliments Barkley’s vocals as they sweep in a linear progression of “so I took you’s” to a number of pleasant locations. The song crimps as the strings mount and suddenly, without warning, the lyrics lead to a chair where Barkley sings “so I took you with a knife.” It is a jarring shift, and one that infringes upon the listener’s suspension of disbelief. But the trust is often restored in People Problems, and for each strange lyrical impasse there is something delicate musically that proves Oh No Oh My is sensitive to what at first seems to be an amateur understanding of their own content.

Their stories are delicate. “Not The One” gives glimpses into the life of a girl whose hopes are unrealistic. The song crawls with a visceral Elliot Smith guitar strum that creaks intermittently with the sound of the fingers sliding on the strings. The listener can actually hear the force it takes to play this song. It is an intimate privilege, and though the song ends before two minutes have passed, a connection is made. “Should Not Have Come To This” blinks with the simplicity and blankness of early Of Montreal. Barkley expands his words — ‘it’ becomes a five-syllable word — spreading a lazy haze. The vocals surge from behind the clouds as Barkley surrenders, “C’est la vie.” Exploding rays wrinkle with the echo of a ponderous Brian Wilson as the strings pant with the frankness of a jewelry box left open in a hurting youth’s bedroom.

The disarming People Problems grafts a band that is much more mature than it seems. Oh No Oh My weaves compelling storytelling with pop sensibilities on par with Beulah and adheres it to all the vastly emotional string arrangements by Brian Cassidy (formerly of Okkervil River) that underlines the depth of the material. Even the album artwork reflects the sort of playful somberness that defines Oh No Oh My, for better or for worse. The album sleeve frames a photograph of a flipped car that has landed rear-down with its body jutting vertically out of the earth like a tree. People Problems is probably somehow still playing in that car as it sits motionless in a devastated peace.

Websites:
www.ohnoohmy.com
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