Garage rock has never been about honing a polished sound in a studio made for easy listening. Likewise, psychedelic rock has never been about making sense lyrically, or following a regular song structure.
That being said, Thee Oh Sees take many of these characteristics to extremes on their latest album, “A Weird Exits.” Following last year’s “Mutilator Defeated At Last,” Thee Oh Sees’ 17th album delivers too much of the same sound that the band has cultivated for over a decade. That isn’t to say the band sounds bad, but rather that there is a time and a place for the thrashing, fuzzy, two-drumset frenzy that has become synonymous with Thee Oh Sees.
Perhaps the band’s frequency of producing albums has become a disservice to their ability to remain fresh and maintain a diverse sound. It can be difficult to show meaningful progress and evolution while releasing, on average, more than an album per year.
Clocking in at just less than 40 minutes, “A Weird Exits” is a quick but fun romp of methodical jams, distorted guitar solos and mysteriously cryptic female falsettos.
A positive spin on the apparent redundancy of the band’s recent releases is their consistency. Thee Oh Sees have managed to churn out extremely cohesive albums year after year, and that cohesion is clear on “A Weird Exits.” Despite its short length, the album succeeds at snaring the listener with songs powered by driving drums and bass that draw out to a grander feel. One highlight of the album is “Gelatinous Cube” — an exciting, guitar shredding jam complemented by distant, guttural vocals that serve as a sort of climax to the album.
However, songs like this are few and far between, and are interrupted by overly distorted and somewhat boring tracks that rely too heavily on the same stylistic motifs heard on many of Thee Oh Sees’ previous albums. “A Weird Exits” certainly isn’t their worst album in recent memory, but it fails to progress the band’s sound and style, coming off as more stale than fresh.
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