The one hundred seventy-third album: #173 Alexander Spence - Oar
Oar is a folk rock album mostly written in a mental hospital. There are elements of country in here, but on the whole the album features a bunch of songs with, at times, odd lyrics, not always sung clearly enough to make out in the first place. As the album progresses, it introduces more psychedelic elements, all in all creating a journey into the mind of a man who was clearly struggling and making sense of the world.
As much as I can't quite make sense of all parts of the album, the result drifts from mellow and relaxing to unsettling.When it's country or folk rock, the songs are fine, competent but not amazing. When it shifts from there, though, there's something special about the album, all put together by one man and creating an odd experience that I haven't seen replicated quite like this - psychedelic, but without needing drugs, using this man's troubles instead.