The Daily Spin, January 28
The Oh Hellos | Zephyrus
Welcome back to the Daily Spin, the series in which I review 365 albums during 2023.
Each album will be given a rating on a scale from 0 to 10. You can look at the entire set here.
If you want to suggest an album, good news! You can do so right here!
This is our second review of an album by The Oh Hellos. You can find our other reviews below.
Album: Zephyrus (2020)
Artist: The Oh Hellos
Link:
The fourth and final in the Oh Hellos’ winds series, Zephyrus is a fitting closing act, but comes up a little short when looking at the artist’s entire body of work.
Centrally, it’s similar to other acts in the series, with enough variance in instrumentation to get the job done, and two very talented vocalists maintaining a framework that keeps people intrigued and tuned to the songs - and yet, at the same time, there are pieces that just aren’t quite there in Zephyrus that were present in earlier works from the pair.
When it’s good, the band excels - toeing that violently fine line between preachy and spiritual with expert dexterity, turning those moments into emotive calls and whiplash stings with equal fervor and ease, a wind changing directions but running the same course.
Rating: 7.1/10
Best Tracks: Holding On Where I Am Able; Rounds
Worst Tracks: Soap; Theseus