Review Summary: Goat’s most strained release yet is ultimately non-essential listening.
Goat’s motif is blending psychedelic rock music with folk from around the world -so much so that their debut is literally named World Music. World Music and their sophomore effort, Commune, did a lively job at exploring this style all while including catchy riffs. Although taking traditional African and Asian folk and mixing them with electric guitar and effects isn’t exactly an original idea, Goat made it their own with distinct vocals and indulgent hippy mantras. While Headsoup is mostly a singles compilation, the last three songs were new enough where they showcased their sound evolving - with their process growing more modern, less pastiche, and more willing to sound electronically processed. For the sake of keeping an audience’s interest, these updates were certainly a good thing. Unfortunately, Goat’s latest effort, Oh Death, decided to completely backtrack on that progress for what mostly amounts to Commune b-side rejects.
Clocking in at just under 34 minutes, this is their shortest work yet. Upon hearing the record, it’s evident that it’s not because there was a thorough process of choosing the best cuts or because of some magnificent concept album about death that had all its pieces meticulously scored, but rather just a blatant lack of ideas. The last four tracks, which take up over a third of the album, are unapologetic filler -with either weak hooks or just a spacey barren atmosphere. “Chukua Pesa,” on the other hand, is quite on the nose with its African influence yet incorporates hardly any rock elements beyond a boring occasional guitar fuzz note. It’s a bit jarring to hear white Swedish people take such strong influence from African music while barely attempting to give any purposeful identity to it. “Just throw some Swahili singing in there, that’ll be fine. Is that Indian tabla? Sure throw that in too.” Even when lively, the weaker tracks sound sparse and uninspired.
Fortunately, the rest of the album is actually pretty good. The singles are danceable and provide strong rock backings, with “Under No Nation” even having a funk vibe. Saxophone and flute are both used to gleefully descend different tracks into jammy chaos. The album’s crown jewel, “Soon You Die,” gives Oh Death its central message of enjoying our short lives while we can and not worrying too much about death. This powerful statement is backed with roaring vocals and a crushing riff -all of which justify this album’s existence. For their latest release, Goat’s motif is blatantly stronger when it leans more on the rock side of things with the African folk elements only being placed subtly.
For a band who seemed to be going in an enticing new direction previously, Oh Death is a cowardly and lazy return to comfort with less of the strong hooks and genre balance that made the original two LPs great. It’s also worth noting that the album cover features a confused toothy corduroy sex nightmare that completely fails to evoke the peaceful loving spirituality Goat sings about. Maybe it’s an indication that Goat has lost the plot and has descended into self-parody. If you haven’t already exhausted the rest of their discography, you should probably skip this one.
