On leaving BC to return to its Ontario roots, Ox releases this
assortment of tunes and guitar squiggles. The band is playful, hoping
to engross you in its experiments, varying distortion as if musing
about Les Paul in his basement 60 years ago. This may appeal to
gearheads and Deadheads, but the songs seem half-written. Singer Mark
Browning is distracted. On “Unknown Legend,” his lassitude oddly
complements the metallic yawns in the string-bending. True chops
surface in “Your Old Buick”‘s break, rewarding the listener for whom
sounding wasted is not in itself a virtue.
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2009.