ONEIDA
The Wedding
Jagjaguwar
· You are cordially invited.
A person could compare Oneida to every band they can possibly think of and be both right and completely off the mark. Are they psych-pop dabblers, garage revivalists, stadium cock rockers, post-punk neo-hippies or new wave, ambient, experimental, retro jazz artists? If put on the spot, I’d have to say… yes?
The Wedding is an album that could be played at an actual wedding ceremony (albeit a supercool wedding like the one in that Guns N’ Roses video). The record seems to chronicle a formal and anxiety-ridden occasion, finding balance between tension and sentiment. The album opens with "The Eiger," a bevy of thudding cellos and violins, followed by a lax choir singing about lovers who never were. The Philip Glass-inspired "Know" is probably one of the saddest and most apologetic love songs I’ve heard in recent years, and "High Life" tricks you with its classical strings, letting you come to the bittersweet conclusion that the song isn’t about love at all, but about letting the person you love hog the bong (and really, isn’t that what real love’s about, anyway).
The Wedding uses opulent arrangements (sometimes) to create a cohesive and atmospheric album (kind of), full of melancholic songs (for the most part), all the while utilizing a snide sense of humour (every now and then), leaving these three Brooklyn noisemakers to make a truly communicative record (most definitely).
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