I love end-of-year list time. I love seeing where the records I've enjoyed appear in other people's lists, what records they loved that I didn't and seeing who agrees and disagrees with each other. But most importantly, I love seeing what records people loved that passed me by entirely. I spend most of December catching up on these records and routinely find at least one great thing.
In 2017, Truck Store put Offa Rex's debut album, The Queen of Hearts, at the very top of their list, quite the accolade. Now 2017 was a strange year musically - looking back at my top ten albums of the year I can see that there'd be little overlap with most institutions, let alone with Truck Store, a shop that tailors to a fairly specific part of my collection. But I was still impressed that they'd gone so high with an album that I don't think I saw in any other lists. I have a lot of respect for their musical tastes in Truck, so figured it was worth a punt.
Of course, a certain proportion of the album wasn't entirely unknown - Offa Rex are a collaboration between singer Olivia Chaney and The Decemberists; the former not someone I know, but the latter a band I know well. I'd heard about the project but hadn't bothered to check it out straight away. I like The Decemberists, and Karl mentioned that Colin sang a few songs, so it ticks some boxes for Decemberists fans. I was feeling rich that day I guess, so figured I'd pick up a copy based on their recommendation.
The Queen of Hearts is an ok album, but it's not remotely one that I love. Olivia has an incredible voice - just listen to The Gardener and you'll hear that. There are moments where the music is appropriately haunting and everything works. But the overwhelming theme is that of a fairly straight-forward homage to old English folk songs, a genre I really don't have any interest in. Colin Meloy clearly loves it, as mentioned on his Colin Meloy Sings Live album. Frank Turner went through a (prolonged) phase of trying his hand at traditional English folk songs too. In both cases I was far from into it - I'm sure it's a rich and fascinating area of history, but I don't get anything from it and have no interest in seeing it revived - at best these modern covers sound like an average tribute, at worst they just sound cheesy. I didn't know most of these songs were traditional songs going into the album; if I had, I might not have bought it.
You'll see in the pictures that there are two white stickers in the top right corner - this was the description that Truck stuck on the sleeve which I've left on mainly because I never got round to peeling it off. What I read when I saw this sticker was "majestic folk rock" and "Black Sabbath", all words which are included and enough to draw me in. However, the words before Black Sabbath are "even at times early". Using plural "times" is a stretch, because there is precisely one song where you could try to compare it to Black Sabbath, and that song is Sheepcrock and Black Dog, which is so far from the rest of the album it stands out like a sore thumb, despite basically being the same but with a heavy guitar.
In fact, that's probably my main criticism with the album as a whole, it's ultimately very same-y. Olivia has an incredible voice, but both times Colin takes over on lead vocal I'm more than ready for a change. I think I hoped that the two would share vocal duties more on the same songs, but the simple structures don't really allow for that.
Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 07/12/17
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
