One of the most fascinating stories in music history has to be King Crimson. Though their various lineups over the years tended to be more stable than the legendary upheavals of The Fall, the story of them transitioning from the mid 70s lineup to the Discipline era makes for a fascinating tale. I highly recommend at least reading the Wikipedia entry to get the quick and dirty series of events. Effectively resetting the sound and style they had been known for in the 70s, the influence of new members Adrien Belew (who had recently been touring/recording with Talking Heads) and Tony Levin (a criminally underrated and unique bassist, check out 'Elephant Talk' and 'Discipline') didn't so much completely change the band's reputation for virtuosic playing as it did redirect the focus onto polyrhythms, post-punk, and new wave. Of course we all know by now that, other than John Dwyer, there's no certainty with the lineup (and current name) of Oh Sees. They've gone through at least three distinct eras in terms of sound and stylistic focus, to say nothing of the personnel changes. I wouldn't have minded if the mid-era lineup (from 2008 to 2013) stuck around. However, it would have meant missing out on the influences of the members that have rotated through/joined since then, just as King Crimson staying the course would've meant missing out on Discipline and everything to follow.
Oh, right, Mutilator Defeated At Last. That's what I'm here for. I should warn you now, this is going to be longer than usual. There's a-fucking-lot to cover this time out. Anyhow, it was released on May 18th, 2015...and that's it. Wow, no contradicting release date, it must be my lucky day! Though still retaining Thee Oh Sees as their moniker, this album featured the trio lineup that Dwyer had recruited to tour after the release of Drop. The new drummer, Nick Murray, would only be around for this release (well, he is on Memory Of A Cut Off Head, though that's an OCS release). New bassist Tim Hellman, meanwhile, began to solidify the modern-era lineup. It's worth taking a moment to appreciate what a difference he makes to the overall sound. This is the first time Oh Sees had a dedicated bassist, giving the band a low-end bedrock to stand upon. It's true that Petey Dammit! played bass at times, and sometimes downtuned his guitar and/or played it through a bass amp, though just as often he would strictly stick to guitar, repeating the same riff while Dwyer's own guitar went crazy around him. Oddly, around this time Dwyer was quoted as saying he was tired of keyboards for live shows and that “...the future of the band doesn't hold much keyboard...” Sure, until Tomas Dolas joined in 2018 they didn't have a dedicated keyboardist, though I'm almost positive I've seen live clips on YouTube before he joined the band where Dwyer is playing the organ lines of 'Sticky Hulks' on a little synth or MIDI keyboard...But I digress.
You wouldn't know it from the Metacritic scores, which are surprisingly consistent for Oh Sees, but Mutilator Defeated At Last got some of the band's highest scores yet—outlets like Allmusic and The Needle Drop gave it high praise, rather than the usual middling to above average scores. Ironic, then, that I didn't like it that much when it first came out. I couldn't place my finger on why until I went back and listened to their previous albums. “It's different...it's too polished....it's not as unhinged and wild...it's dialing back the garage rock and experimental elements...” Part of it may have also been that in late 2015 I began to date the woman who would go on to be my wife, and she was introducing me to a metric fuckton of EDM, vaporwave, and lo-fi hip hop. So Mutilator was set to the side and I didn't really think about it.
A funny thing happened on the way to the final opinion. I was in the throes of another serious Diablo III obsession in early 2017, often playing it for hours with the sound turned way down and my own music selections blasting on a Bluetooth speaker. One night I decided to throw the last few Oh Sees releases into a playlist and hit shuffle. Now, in my mind, Mutilator was the poppy/polished album, and A Weird Exits/An Odd Entrances was where they once again really got weird and cool. Pleasant surprise after pleasant surprise hit my dopamine receptors as I thought to myself “damn, this song is fantastic, what album is it from again?” and I'd look down and see that more often than not, the ones that got my attention were from Mutilator. Turns out, this record was the true start of the modern-era Oh Sees after all. If 60s garage rock was the soup base before, then this new era changed to a buffet of 70s music as its foundation. Psychedelic and krautrock stuck around, now seasoned with spicy druggier/jammier classic rock, meaty prog rock, and a few herby dashes of proto-punk, post-punk, and even boogie rock. That's right, Oh Sees beat King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard to boogie rock with Mutilator's excellent 'Turned Out Light.' Let's not get into that tired Sees Vs. Gizz debate, though.
All of this is a long build-up to getting around to saying I now regard Mutilator as a flawless record. It wouldn't be hard to make a case for it being the band's best album ever. I love everything about it—even the strange album cover, with the vinyl record wear-and-tear making it look and feel like something you might discover in the collection of one of your parents from back in the 70s/80s. No song on this release is less than great; many are stone-cold classics that still appear in live sets. 'Sticky Hulks' showed us that they could slow it down and get a bit moody/atmospheric while still giving us something that is undeniably Oh Sees, almost as if they were working on a cover of 'Riders On The Storm' and it mutated into something else. Even the slighter/shorter tracks bristle with inspired ideas and playing: I won't rest until 'Rogue Planet' is the theme song to an Adult Swim show about surfers/skaters in outer space. Meanwhile, 'Holy Smoke' is how you do an instrumental right. Using acoustic instead of electric guitar is a subtle but brilliant change, giving Mutilator more sonic variety while still working well in the overall flow. On a side note, listen to this track and OCS's 'Memory Of A Cut Off Head' back-to-back, the guitar and strings on the latter are highly reminiscent of 'Holy Smoke.' It should go without saying that Mutilator opens with the commanding one-two punch of 'Web' and 'Withered Hand', but I guess I did just kind of say it by saying it didn't need to be said. I think I just made myself dizzy.
Let's move on. Discuss amongst yourselves how it is that this album is only a couple minutes longer than Drop but feels so much more fleshed out and satisfying. Please also take careful notes as I present my TED Talk, “'Palace Doctor' Is An Amazing Cooldown Of An Album Closer That Deserves More Love.” And since I won't be covering them as part of my required curriculum this semester, I'll point those who want extra credit to submit a minimum 300 word essay on how the non-album single made up of the songs 'Fortress'/'Man In A Suitcase' could have been crammed onto the album to bulk up the runtime but it was smartly allowed to breathe on its own. Discuss artistic integrity vs. giving people quantity over quality; compare and contrast this single with the similar Moon Sick EP in regards to it being a fine dessert course following Floating Coffin.
Oh, and a quick reminder before you're dismissed, students: next class we'll be covering Live In San Francisco. Prepare to analyze the form and function of a live album vis-รก-vis a band's relationship with their own body of work and the chosen performance style(s). As always, we'll have a purely voluntary luncheon and bong rip session after class. Dig in.
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