Oh No! Oh My! – Oh No! Oh My!
Self-released in 2006 (= so indie it hurts)
Here goes the second review.
Oh No! Oh My!’s self-titled debute album was a random encounter for me, an almost unintentional download (yepp). Slightly snobbish band name with two exclamation marks? Hell yeah, love those. I mean, if one thing is good in downloading, it’s the fact that I won’t regret it even if it sucks. And if it’s good, I can buy it to support the artist. I don’t think you can buy this record anywhere near here, but that’s not my fault. Enough, let’s cut to the chase.
After a few undefined reversed cymbal sounds which, for a few seconds, make you wonder, whether this album will be experimental or something, an acoustic guitar comes in. Relief, I must say. I like electronic stuff and strange noises, but I was getting ready for something more… light-hearted.
And this record is light-hearted indeed. Pop in its pure form. And that’s something I really need from time to time. Okay, I nearly erased the whole thing when iTunes shuffled me Walk In The Park in the morning. A stupidly optimistic song about walking in the park with a girl (‘when you wake up early and the sun is shining’), hooray, you look out and the streets are covered with mud and rain, grey clouds hover above you, no hope, no future, an industrial band is giving a free concert next door (=the neighbours are having their plumbing repaired)… Ruins your day even more.
But… On the other hand, stupid happiness can make your day too. Cheerful pop is a must.
Come on, they have cute turtles on the cover!!
But only one of them is alive. Maybe life isn’t so perfectly happy at all? No, it isn’t, I tell you that. No, but cheer up, Brian, you know what they say.
Let’s cut to the second chase.
Musically this album is nothing outrageously new. It’s somewhere on the way between The Magnetic Fields (without Stephin Merritt dying in each song :) ) and The Boy Least Likely To (less cartoonishness here). Acoustic guitars and cute synth melodies dominate these rather simple songs.
I Love You All The Time brings the only surprise with a minute of technoish beat and keyboard effects. Guitar strumming follows. Maybe the best song on the album, by the way. I Have No Sister is great too.
~ Final score: 6.8/10
It’s nothing very special, but catchingly simple. And I won’t say anything like ‘they have potential’ etc because I wouldn’t believe my own words then. I seriously don’t believe they are capable of anything better than this half-an-hour-long record. But boys…prove me wrong.
