Track Review: Thee Oh Sees

Thee Oh Sees third album, HELP (In the Red) isn't out yet, but that hasn't stopped me from getting my hot little paws on it at a recent show.

At first, I was underwhelmed by HELP in its entirety, especially after seeing most of the tracks played live (Oh Sees shows are practically untouchable). Then an angel was sent from the heavens in the form of an early birthday present: a new pair of Sennheiser headphones , which gave the album the dimension and buoyancy I thought was gone.

"I Can't Get No" quickly breaks into a smooth gallop after a few space-age guitar licks and yelps from John Dwyer, San Francisco's musical kingpin. With flourishing drums and guitar, the song is off like a race horse on derby day, Dwyer's voice hugging bandmate Brigid Dawsom's for dear life in a tight-knit, staccato cascade of words and genius phrasing as they declare "I can't/get no/help at all!" Laser-cut drum runs string the verses together seamlessly as taut guitar chord progressions form the song's vibrant bedrock. Dwyer and Dawson's unfettered wails of beautiful, minor-key anguish about the pitfalls of self-reliance could almost be mistaken for quite the opposite.

After the mindbending, whiz-bang cohesion of their critical smash The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In, the rest of HELP needs to prove its greatness in new and different ways, but I'm not worried---I have a feeling the genius of Thee Oh Sees is lying around in there somewhere.

Dwyer bids you adieu: