In a great act of love for their fans, The Wombats chose Valentine’s Day to present us with their new record, Oh! The Ocean, filled with 12 new songs.
Should listeners be prepared for a serenade filled with charming indie records about love and lust? Yes and no. The Liverpudlian band try to tap into both the shallow and complex parts of people’s minds and explore their feelings in relation to a demanding world.
They’ve never been ones to present life as black and white and Oh! The Ocean is no exception to that rule.
Opener, ‘Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come’ is frank and lays the mood out simply. It’s laid-back, woozy sound, compared with the lyrics “Your life story’s not of my concern / How ‘bout we talk about me now?” reflects peace once deciding not to people-please, along with the ease and dreaminess of Murphy’s high-and-low vocal sways while he sings “But f*ck that, I won’t surrender”. With this one, The Wombats juxtaposition a gentle sound over lyrics that put romance on the back foot.
‘The World’s Not Out to Get Me, I Am’, sees choppy verses award it a fun liveliness. The guitar sequence before the last run of the chorus is appreciated too. It has a Beck-like composition, and is particularly reminiscent of his 2017 track ‘Dreams’, but it was in fact produced by the band themselves with the help of John Congleton, who has also worked with Sharon Van Etten and Wallows.
There is much deviation from their token sounds: one example being ‘Kate Moss’, which has a grungier, techno sound. Murphy’s voice is more reserved, until around two minutes in, he yells “Now all I ever seem to find is mayhem” and the electronic soundscape intensifies.
Not so techno, but similar in its divergence, ‘I Love America and She Hates Me’ moves away from the themes of self-reflection and contempt for the world, and directs all of that focus towards some bitter-sweet personification of the United States.
“Not cheap but the market’s free / No God, but I’m still on my knees” the cruel yet tempting chase of the American Dream is real: Murphy has lived in Los Angeles for around a decade with his family, and his wife is American, so he’s surely speaking from first-hand experience when he sings “I’ll love America ‘til a bullet’s in my head”. But, this could equally be torn between a genuine love for the place and a jibe at the constant romanticisation of Americana which doesn’t truly reflect reality.
Marvellously, they’ve produced even more tracks on this album that are beyond their usual scope. ‘Swerve (101)’s dark instrumentation is intimidating and could easily find its way onto a film soundtrack whilst the villain takes to the screen, whilst ‘Lobster’ has a psychedelic essence due to the way Murphy’s high-pitched, reverbed voice glides over a trance-like drum beat.
They know they don’t always have to stray from the norm to make a good album though and they’re still throwing in some tracks in that are certain to be indie bar pleasers, with ‘Blood On The Hospital Floor’, where the tempo picks up and we are plunged back into the realm of fast-paced, punky, guitar riffs. Its lyrics explore our tendency to assume the worst. “You think it’s worse than it is / Looks bad, but it’s easy to fix”. There are a lot of reasons to be pissed off at the world, but just maybe, they’re easier to solve than we think.
They stay close to their roots with ‘Can’t Say No’ too, which explores aspects of escapism and unsettled romantics in the same oxymoronic way their 2018 track ‘Lethal Combination’ does.
Oh! The Ocean also has its softer tracks like, ‘Grim Reaper’ (surprisingly), which is summery, arrayed with “Oooh’s” but sees Murphy beg “Stop making things so fucking hard”. Likewise, ‘Gut Punch’ has a retro video game sound and is bubbly, with simple rhymes (”Hit me with a gut-punch, gut-punch, gut-punch / How about a soul crush, soul crush, soul crush?”) but it’s fun nonetheless. This is the mood for the majority of the track until the very end when Murphy sings “I’m happy and sad at the same time” right before the song abruptly finishes. A happy song with a sudden mood dip right before the end gives it that little bit of edge and relatability.
Another repetitive track is ‘My Head Is Not My Friend’, although it does so more effectively. Frequent utterance of the track’s title words throughout and the frantic beat accurately conveys a sense of overthinking.
Despite not being the final song in the album, ‘Reality Is A Wild Ride’ is a nice reminder that above all of the complexities and feelings of the other tracks, they’re “still loving the show”.
The Wombats are always strengthening their overall sound with experimentation and ever-increasing confidence (which will of course come naturally with over 20 years in the game).
They remain strong in their original lineup: Tord Øverland Knudsen and Dan Haggis have been making indie tracks with Murphy since 2003 and remain weaved into the indie-rock landscape, albeit in a different way to previous decades.
They always try, and often succeed, at relating to overthinkers, worriers and free spirits. Oh! The Ocean is a fitting follow up to 2022’s Fix Yourself, Not the World, and the two albums compliment each other well.
The band are heading out on a UK tour this month, first with some record store gigs before hitting arenas in Glasgow, Leeds and Manchester.
Words by Kai Palmer
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