O'Death - Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skins

TRACKLISTING: 1  Victor Jara’s Hands, 2  Two Silver Trees, 3  The News About William, 4  Sarabande In Pencil Form, 5  Writer’s Minor Holiday, 6  Man Made Lake, 7  Inspiracion, 8  House Of Valparaiso, 9  Slowness, 10  Bend To The Road, 11  El Gatillo (Trigger Revisited), 12  Fractured Air (Tornado Watch), 13  Falling From Sleeves, 14  Red Blooms, 15  Contention City

OVERVIEW: New York quintet (Greg Jamie - vocals/guitars; Gabe Darling - vocals/multi-instrumentalist, Bob Pycior - fiddle, Newman - bass and David Rogers-Berr - drums) O’Death’s third album, Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skin, feels like a giddy junkyard hoedown, from the panicked fiddle screeches of opener “Low Tide” to the celebratory gallop of closer “Lean-To.” At times it sounds morose or contemplative, but underneath the melancholy is a gospel fervor—bashed from paint buckets, banjos, guitars and anything else in kicking distance—that defines their sound.
Since 2007’s Head Home, the band have evolved the possessed americana-meets-gypsy-punk of recent years into a more urgent, unrelenting celebration of life, death and everything in between.
For their latest album, the musically diverse Broken Hymns, Limbs and Skins—which O’Death co-produced with Alex Newport (Two Gallants, the Locust)—they’ve recreated their live fervor in the studio. They’ve grown up a little, but haven’t lost the underlying longing or the unruly jubilation in their songs. Jamie’s vocals sound more confident, even when singing lyrics like “I’m gonna leave you when the morning comes” on “Lean-To” or the infectious “hold on” hook on “Fire On Peshtigo,” which is based on a real fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, in 1871.
The songs were written over the three years since they recorded Head Home, and each one shows a different side to the band as they toured almost nonstop across the world.

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