The Ooz is an Archy Marshall hash, the strange scraps of his brain stewed into something unrecognizable and delicious.
The OOZ creates a brutalist and beautiful terrain, one that we can wander vicariously through King Krule; it’s nothing short of a masterpiece.
The world is a filthy, utterly debased place, his music suggests, but there are rewards of sorts for those determined to survive it. In this spirit, The OOZ drops at our feet like a piece of poisoned fruit, a masterpiece of jaundiced vision from one of the most compelling artists alive.
The Ooz is rich with detail, but its length means its ideas have enough room to spread out. It’s teeming with life, but it never feels too busy.
Even with three or four excess tracks, the album is still an essential listen; disorienting but never dull, heartsick but never maudlin, the rambling melancholy of The Ooz seems destined to soundtrack thousands of lonesome nights and send its listeners on journeys through its nocturnal half-dream without the need to leave the comfort of their headphones.
On The OOZ, the 23-year-old South Londoner deploys slow-hand guitar licks, crashing drums and the odd bit of brass or electronica to form raw, bluesy orchestration that's as classically cool as a round-neck tee. On top hangs his deep, heavily accented voice – an immersive yet oddly soulful thing that could still turn water into stone.
The Ooz can be dark and difficult. But it is also ambitious and delightful, reaffirming the delightful, reaffirming the delicate boundary between beauty and ruin.
This LP is a dark, hardly distorting mirror to the modern inner city and in that way it feels almost important, moreover it sounds like the next step in what has been the blossoming of a very serious artiste.
The breadth of genre and influence that The OOZ sports over nineteen tracks totaling more than an hour is nothing short of staggering.
A little bloated the record occasionally feels samey in places and too abrasive in others, but with few songs feeling without merit. Thanks to strong moments, The OOZ is a record that earns its run time.
The Ooz is confessional, confrontational, soothing and abrasive; an invitation into the fluid creativity of one of the most compelling songwriters of his generation.
Despite the fractured nature of its lyrics, The OOZ is quite enveloping; its heady mix of fractured jazz guitar and stuttering beats create a dark, unsettling world in which Marshall’s gunky vignettes come alive.
Marshall's irregular flashes of idiosyncratic brilliance impress, though The OOZ's 19 tracks contain many longueurs that merely baffle or bore, so tread carefully.
Over 19 tracks some focus is lost, but focus isn’t really the point of Krule, whose moods make for an immersive listen.
As we grow old and advance through time and space, the very essence of being a human being is slowly, but incessantly unveiled before us. At times, the interstice between our adolescent years and those of what many consider to be 'adulthood' pass us by in the blink of an eye, leaving us disoriented, drifting motionless in the backspace of our minds whenever we stop and give the whole process some thought. For some, the interplay within the act of growing up can be painful, confusing, loathsome, ... read more
I feel like this could be seen as King Krule's equivalent to Blonde in a way maybe? I mean it took it him quite a while to finish it, it's a less direct album than it's predecessor and it has much more of a focus towards building a rich sonic tapestry and writing lyrics raw to the bone than making you bob your head, I can just see a mild correlation there. Regardless, this is one of the most raw and biting albums of 2017, Archy sounds incredibly vulnerable on almost every track here. This can ... read more
Some very vibey and enjoyable Jazz rock that has some really nice and creative production, and despite not every track hitting, the overall experience is quite nice and something worth returning to. Good introduction to King K. Rool
It’s sludgy, dreary, and although there seems to be some kind of ‘light’ at the end of the tunnel - one that suggests Archy’s music will go up from here - what we are left with is boring bordering on unlistenable.
one of the most relaxing and beautiful albums i’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to
Damn.
This is a pretty sad but comforting album. I love his take on trip-hop, as well as a few other genres here. While it's sad all around, it's also in a way a refreshing album in terms of the production. Not too much to say about it, it's just really really good. Main issue I have is the length, it definitely struggles a bit with how long it is but besides that I really enjoyed this.
Favorites: Biscuit Town, The Locomotive, Dum Surfer, Slush Puppy, Bermondsey Bosom (Left), Logos, ... read more
1 | Biscuit Town 3:42 | 88 |
2 | The Locomotive 2:51 | 86 |
3 | Dum Surfer 4:23 | 92 |
4 | Slush Puppy 2:42 | 91 |
5 | Bermondsey Bosom (Left) 1:14 | 81 |
6 | Logos 3:50 | 85 |
7 | Sublunary 2:10 | 78 |
8 | Lonely Blue 4:44 | 83 |
9 | Cadet Limbo 4:52 | 84 |
10 | Emergency Blimp 2:54 | 90 |
11 | Czech One 4:15 | 86 |
12 | A Slide In (New Drugs) 3:05 | 75 |
13 | Vidual 2:19 | 87 |
14 | Bermondsey Bosom (Right) 1:05 | 80 |
15 | Half Man Half Shark 5:02 | 86 |
16 | The Cadet Leaps 4:21 | 81 |
17 | The OOZ 4:35 | 92 |
18 | Midnight 01 (Deep Sea Diver) 3:53 | 86 |
19 | La Lune 4:17 | 85 |
#1 | / | Dummy |
#2 | / | Les Inrocks |
#3 | / | KCRW |
#3 | / | Noisey |
#3 | / | Pitchfork |
#6 | / | Treble |
#7 | / | Baeble Music |
#7 | / | Esquire (US) |
#8 | / | Clash |
#8 | / | Highsnobiety |