Album Review: Oslow - 'Oslow'

It’s been a long time coming for Sydney outfit Oslow to release a full-length album - they've been around in the scene for enough years to have supported La Dispute last time that band toured out here. So...it’s been a while, right?

Anyway, their self-titled LP is now out and about, and the only question remaining is whether it’s as sad as we all expected it to be?

Well, firstly, 'Oslow' is a work of art that demands comparisons to every single Run For Cover Records artist ever, but that isn’t a negative statement to make. Not at all! It may take a little bit of time to grow on you depending on whether you’re approaching it after a late night drive to American Football or a not-so-edgy obsession with Drake, but there is a point when this record will hit you. And when it does, it will hit you hard.

At its core, this record is about feeling like an outsider, whether that’s a choice or an inevitability. On ‘Sewing’, vocalist Dylan Farrugia strains to ask the question of why it’s so hard to be yourself, all the while narrating an album that is unquestionably authentic to Oslow’s scene-admired identity. Tracks like ‘Asleep In The Hallway’ run with the slow burn of a Tigers Jaw track and the voice of mid-career Title Fight, but Oslow never becomes those bands entirely; they are merely influenced by them.

What Oslow have also managed to do with their self-titled release is deliver on the promise that when they’re given more space than the room of a 7”, they don’t just write the same song eleven times. That unwritten vow is not broken when you hear tunes like ‘Cold Dark Space’ and those mind-of-their-own guitars on ‘Deer In The Works’.

Yes, there will be many comparisons to the likes of Balance & Composure with this release - and yes, the emo revival has been done before and will be done again - but that doesn't mean that this record won't mean something to our local scene and to the eager people out there who will embrace it.

So should you.

Oslow is not on a mission to write songs that are catchy or embroidered with untenable skill – that’s not the point. The point of this record is all about feeling. It doesn’t really matter whether you have everything you’ve ever wanted and it’s not enough (see: ‘Black Light’) or the person you love doesn’t love you back, you’ll find solace in the melancholy twangs of this debut LP. If that was the intention, to soundtrack some level of belonging with this record about not being able to find it, Oslow have accomplished exactly what they set out to do!

1. Asleep In The Hallway

2. Sewing

3. Cold Dark Space

4. Los Croydos

5. Everything Etc.

6. Nothing Yet

7. Separate

8. Deer In The Works

9. Black Light

10. Straight Through

11. Wide Eyed

Oslow's solid self-titled album is out now via Resist Records. Go get it here.