With age comes maturity and wisdom, but just because you’re getting older doesn’t mean that you have things figured out. The Wombats capture that seemingly eternal anxiety and anguish well on their sixth studio album, Oh! The Ocean, which dropped today. The album serves as a sonic departure from the indie band’s previous work—it’s moodier, more at ease and a signal that after two decades together and six studio albums, the band is able to gel in unique ways.
The band’s lead singer and guitarist Matthew Murphy has always been open about his struggles with anxiety, self-doubt and the occasional self-hatred. That’s still there, but he’s also feeling the pressure from something else throughout “Oh! The Ocean,”—the country that the Liverpool native now lives in.
Murphy sings about his experience living in LA in the instantly relatable mid-album track “I Love America And She Hates Me,” a song that couldn’t be more timely, even if it was recorded last summer.
In the song’s chorus, Murphy, a Brit who now lives full-time in Los Angeles sings “I love America, and she hates me. Gets all her pleasure from shattering my dreams.”
Certainly it was written under different circumstances than our current government that’s growing more totalitarian by the day, but it’s an eerily relatable song about how soul-crushing of a country the United States could be. The song’s coupled with a groovy bassline from the band’s stellar bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen running throughout the track that doesn’t help to take away any of the worries that an American citizen or resident might have about their country, but might inspire a listener to dance a little bit while they panic.
But on the flip side, it captures the feeling of not wanting to leave America, even though it can be such a devastating place to exist. “I know why I don’t want to leave here,” Murphy sings in the song’s bridge.
The band was inspired to give their album the name “Oh! The Ocean” after an experience Murphy had while on vacation last year. After looking out at the ocean, and being amazed at the enormity of it, he took a deeper look at himself and how he sees the world.
Take a look at the album’s name, think about sitting in LA, looking out at the enormity and expanse of the ocean. I wouldn’t want to leave, either.
“Oh! The Ocean” sees the band branching out more sonically, embracing softer tones and electronic influences throughout the album, which is especially noticeable on the song “Kate Moss.”
It’s interesting, and not unwelcome, to hear the band slow down in this way. The Wombats have always had a ferociously energetic sound and stage presence during the live shows. It’s sure to be a bit of a change if this more mellowed out sound will be reflected in the band’s upcoming live performances.
Although The Wombats may sound (a bit) different, the band’s lyrics still hit on familiar topics, like Murphy’s anxiety, compulsive behaviors and social discomfort. The vocalist and guitarist directly addresses this on the song “The World’s Not Out to Get Me, I Am,” a name similar to the band’s 2022 album, which was titled Fix Yourself, Not the World.
The song sees Murphy addressing himself as the root of his problems, rather than blaming the world in general. “Victim of myself, I can’t blame no one else but you know I’m going to try,” Murphy sings in one of the song’s verses.
One of my favorite things about the album is that each song sounds different from another. Nothing’s stagnant—from the harmonious “Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come,” to the bouncy “Blood on the Hospital Floor” to the moody “Swerve (101),” in which Murphy groans about the social-climbing atmosphere that he’s experienced while living in Los Angeles.
The Wombats released four singles to promote the album, including “Blood On the Hospital Floor,” an energetic callback to their previous releases, “Can’t Say No,” which is sonically laid back and brimming with surf rock influences and the witty “Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want to Come,” which kicks off the album in a new style for The Wombats.
Throughout the album, it’s clear that The Wombats have grown. Their sound has evolved album after album, their lyrics have chronicled the band’s maturation. Just as their listeners have changed and grown over the past nearly 20 years since The Wombats first released their debut LP “Girls, Boys and Marsupials,” some things always stay the same — anxiety, stress, not wanting to leave the house and an adoration of the ocean.
In support of the new album, The Wombats are hitting the road for much of the rest of the year, touring through the UK, Europe and Australia. Oh! The Ocean is available on all streaming platforms.
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