| OOOH! (Out of Our Heads) | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | the Mekons |
| Cover: | OOOH! (Out of Our Heads).jpg |
| Released: | 2002 |
| Label: | Quarterstick |
| Prev Title: | Journey to the End of the Night |
| Prev Year: | 2000 |
| Next Title: | Punk Rock |
| Next Year: | 2004 |
OOOH! (Out of Our Heads) is an album by the British band the Mekons, released in 2002.[1] [2] It was inspired by a collaborative visual arts project sponsored by East Street Arts.[3] The album marked the band's 25th anniversary.[4] "Thee Olde Trip to Jerusalem" was released as a single.[5] The Mekons supported the album with a North American tour.[6]
Although often labeled a 9/11 album, OOOH!s songs were written by the spring of 2001 and recorded in Chicago.[7] [8] Frontman Jon Langford thought that many of the songs were about the constructive features of religion.[9] Langford and Tom Greenhalgh were the only original bandmembers to participate in the recording sessions.[10] The album cover art was based on the deuterocanonical Book of Judith. "Lone Pilgrim" is a version of the folk standard.[11] "Thee Olde Trip to Jerusalem" mentions William Morris, Tony Benn, William Blake, and the Diggers, among others.[7] Edith Frost and Kelly Hogan provided backing vocals on "Take His Name in Vain", which was inspired by gospel music.[12] "Stonehead" is about regicide.[13]
Robert Christgau wrote that "their best album in a decade doesn't exactly come up and give you a kiss... It's slow, sour, dark, grim--obsessed with treachery, conflagration, and death"; he listed the album as the best of 2002 in his ballot for the Pazz & Jop poll.[14] Pitchfork called the album "a return to textbook Mekons—from gracefully shambling country to deep-beating tribal rhythms, by way of good, clean rock 'n roll." The Tallahassee Democrat deemed it "yet another exuberant, drunken foray into the briar patch of country music."[15] Salon opined that, "instead of plundering trends, like well-preserved chameleons David Bowie and Madonna, they stay relevant by setting songs in the actual world."[10]
The Washington Post determined that OOOH! "consolidates the band's best-loved styles into a boisterous sort of Brit-folk/country-rock," writing that "most of these downbeat yet defiant songs could have been inspired by either the state of the world or the condition of singer-guitarists Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh's souls."[16] The Boston Globe considered the Mekons "rock 'n' roll's most enduring band-as-family," labeling the album "country and rock, agitprop and comfort food."[17] The Independent said that "Langford's vocals are equal parts ragged gospel, drunk country and spiteful punk."[18]
The Chicago Tribune, The Globe and Mail, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were among the many periodicals that included OOOH! with the best albums of 2002.[19] [20] [21]
AllMusic wrote that "this is a Mekons recording that pulls out all the stops and brings their deeply rooted psychobilly country base to the fore while engaging their punk roots with abandon."