Oxbow
The Thin Black Duke
Release Date: May 5, 2017
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Heavy Metal
Record label: Hydra Head
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Album Review: The Thin Black Duke by Oxbow
Exceptionally Good, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 5
It's been 10 years since the last Oxbow album, but it's not as if the band has been doing nothing in that time. The ideas for this album have been kicking around for a while now. Niko Wenner's precise approach to songwriting with its roots in classical composition and jazz has taken time, whilst Eugene Robinson's lyrics in particular date back over a decade.
Based on rating 9/10
Approaching 30 years of existence, San Francisco's Oxbow have never exactly been conventional. While there is a definable vein of familiarity running through the jugular of their music, the many vessels and channels they traverse over the courses of their albums can make it extremely difficult to keep up. Generally, it's best just to let them take you for the ride.
Based on rating 7.3/10
Several months after Oxbow released their sixth album, 2007's The Narcotic Story , frontman Eugene S. Robinson wrote a book about beating people up. It's called Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You'd Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking, and it offers tips for achieving what Robinson refers to as "Zen and the Art of Kick Assertainment," the ecstasy of sweet aches and bloody noses.
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