Wedding

There is an urban legend about this album: some claim that THE WEDDING was inspired by the melodies of an enormous music box built by the members of the band. True or not, a music box might seem a strange avatar for a group of guitar-heavy art rockers like Oneida. But the image serves as a useful metaphor for this methodical, experimental, and altogether lovely album.
That's not to say that THE WEDDING doesn't rock. "Did I Die" bangs along over fuzzy riffs, with lead guitars snarling all the way, and on "Spirits" the raga-inflected melody floats over insistent guitar figures and driving drums. Even on quieter numbers like the opening track, "The Eiger," where Oneida incorporates a string arrangement, or the mid-tempo ballad "You're Drifting," guitar and drums remain central.
What is ultimately experimental about this album isn't so much the extreme shifts in dynamics and tempo, though there are plenty of those. It is Oneida's ability to do indie rock differently. Oneida's interest in repeated melodic figures and shifting time signatures, which are pushed further in some of their previous work, are here employed to create songs that are both emotionally affecting and musically compelling. Oneida are true originals.