Review Summary: "...accidents do not happen, they are caused."
Oxygen Thief’s Barry Dolan is a breath of fresh air in the UK’s acoustic-punk scene. He may just be one man and a guitar (and occasionally an effects pedal), but his sound has just as much in common with post-harcore outfits such as Reuben and Hundred Reasons as it does Frank Turner et al. His debut album,
Destroy It Yourself, proves that there is no obligation to play yet another variant of folk music merely because your weapon of choice has six steel strings, and you certainly do not need the backing of a band to be as boisterous as your heart desires.
The album kicks off with ‘Modesty Is Dead’, and the listener is instantly met with a sound that is positively metal in its blueprint. It may lack distortion, but the riffs are constant and interesting and, dare I say, heavy! It may not be until Dolan begins to sing the refrain of “slow down, relax” and the music takes a brief refrain that the listener becomes aware they’ve been bobbing their heads amidst these acoustic ramblings for well over a minute already. The formula for the album doesn’t change much from here, and nor should it have to. Every second of the way is as anthemic as it is discordant. It’s a solid forty-two minutes of fist pumping, toe tapping and wondering if you’ve got enough family and friends within the vicinity to build a human pyramid.
Dolan does bring in some outside help during the last minute or so of the album's sixth track ‘Words On Walls’, as he is accompanied by the pitter-patter of drums, synths, whistling and clarinets . Whilst this change in mood could be seen by some as welcomed variation to the record you can’t help but think that Oxygen Thief is at his best as a one-man-band, as the end result comes across somewhat ramshackle.
The lyrics on the record are frequently clever and interesting, and yet still find space to be humorous on songs such as ‘Terry Nutkins Salute’ where Dolan tells the tale of almost cutting off his own finger with an axe. Every line on
Destroy It Yourself is written with the intent of being a hook, and you’ll find yourself shouting lines such as “accidents do not happen, they are caused” and “I’ve got pins and needles in my brain” long after the record ends.
Unfortunately the album is not without its pitfalls as the two instrumental tracks on
Destroy It Yourself, ‘Makoto Nagano’ and ‘Nice Night For A Neck Injury’ only serve as repetitive filler. Clocking in at almost three minutes a piece, they both play variations on a singular riff and theme their entire run time, and without song structure or Dolan’s vocals and witticisms they can both grow tiresome and even headache inducing. Dolan has already orchestrated brilliantly throughout the album’s more fully formed tracks just how raucous and metal an acoustic guitar can be without having to drag out the experience.
Destroy It Yourself does not defy or reinvent any of the of the genres in which it dances between, and if that is what you are looking for then you have certainly missed the point. The record instead relies on the instrumentation of folk music and musical tropes of guitar led heavy rock to deliver a collection of songs that are slightly ludicrous in their presentation and yet unimaginably fun.
