The Narcotic Story (album)

The Narcotic Story is the sixth studio album by American experimental rock band Oxbow. It was their first to be released through Hydra Head Records and would be their last full-length album until Thin Black Duke, released a decade later. Co-produced by Joe Chiccarelli, the album incorporates influences from blues rock[1] and features orchestral music, arranged by guitarist Niko Wenner.[2]

The Narcotic Story
Studio album by
Oxbow
Released2007
Studio
Genre
Length45:35
LabelHydra Head
ProducerJoe Chiccarelli, Niko Wenner
Oxbow chronology
An Evil Heat
(2002)		 The Narcotic Story
(2007)		 Thin Black Duke
(2017)

Content

Chris Morgan of Treble describes the album as a "a post-modernist blues record. The music is complex and unpredictable at times but the direct emotional rawness of the most acid-tongued bluesmen is intact and very plainly laid bare like a dumped corpse on a dirt road. It’s hushed and thin but can fill the biggest space with claustrophobic dread in no time."[3] The blues influence is also noted by Brain Howe of Pitchfork: "The Narcotic Story fully embraces a sort of slow-burning, infernal blues. It's a malign transmission, sparser than Oxbow's more metallic styles, and, paradoxically, much heavier."[1] The "musical subtleties" of the album were highlighted by a Drowned in Sound critic: "Strings spill, weeping barroom pianos plink dolefully and the noise of Neurosis tuning up in Hell with razor-wire for plectrums is succeeded by a band becoming comfortable in their own skins; cohesive, essential, even accessible."[4]

The lyrics tell the story of a character named Frank Johnson,[5] "a downtrodden gent [...] lurching through the self-degrading shadows of life."[4] Morgan described it as "a record of addiction and withdrawal, [...] it tells a decidedly unglamorous story of narcotics and whatever else Robinson’s characters go through."[3] The album was initially conceived as the first part of a triptych[4][6] with plans for a filmed adaptation.[5] However in 2017, the band stated that they had "over-promise[d]" and that the person who had been "filming some of the stuff" (who had also inspired "large portions" of the album) "just disappeared with the film."[5]

Release

The album was released through Hydra Head Records on CD and through Black Diamond on LP the following year.[7]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Alternative Press4/5[8]
Drowned in Sound9/10[9]
OndaRock8/10[10]
Pitchfork7.4/10[11]
StylusA-[12]

The album received highly positive reviews from many publications. Drowned in Sound considered it to be "2007's greatest LP".[4] Scene Point Blank wrote that the album marked "another notch on the bedpost of the cash-burning, international horrorshow that is Oxbow, another chapter in one of modern music's most deranged and cathartic sagas."[6] Aaron Turner (founder of Hydra Head Records and Isis front man) included the album among his "picks" and called it "a lesson in brutality, restraint, beauty and menace of endless suspense doled out in equal but unpredictable measure. While musical artists of all stripes regularly feign emotional energy through the mode of song craft, there are a slim few who have so purely channeled the human experience so tenderly and so forcefully as Oxbow have on The Narcotic Story."[13]

Awards

Producer Joe Chiccarelli was nominated for a Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for his work on The Narcotic Story alongside three other albums in 2008.[14]

Accolades

Rock-A-Rolla magazine named it the best album of the year.[15]

Track listing
No.TitleLength
1."Mr. Johnson"0:42
2."The Geometry of Business"4:11
3."Time, Gentlemen, Time"4:52
4."Down a Stair Backward"5:00
5."She's a Find"8:47
6."Frankly Frank"4:46
7."A Winner Every Time"4:52
8."Frank's Frolic"6:24
9."It's the Giving, Not the Taking"6:01
Total length:45:35

Personnel

Adapted from Discogs.[2]

  • Art direction – Aaron Turner
  • Bass – Dan Adams
  • Bassoon – Jarratt Rossini
  • Cello – Eric Gaenslen
  • Clarinet – Leslie Tagorda
  • Orchestral composition – Niko Wenner
  • Conductor – Carlo Dean
  • Photography direction – Gabriella Marks
  • Drums, percussion – Greg Davis
  • Engineering (second engineers) – Enrique Gonzales Muller, Jared Warner
  • Engineering (second engineer), voice (track 1) – Loredana Crisan
  • Flute – Diane Grubbe, MaryClare Brzytwa
  • Guitars, keyboards, arranger, producer, music – Niko Wenner
  • Mastering – J.J. Golden, John Golden
  • Oboe – Jessica Boelter
  • Oboe (oboe solos) – Kyle Bruckmann
  • Other (locations) – Monte Vallier
  • Production, mixing – Joe Chiccarelli
  • Violin – Homer Hsu, Robin Sharp, Sam Smith (track 8)
  • Vocals, lyrics – Eugene Robinson

References
  1. "Oxbow: The Narcotic Story". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  2. "Oxbow - The Narcotic Story". Discogsn. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  3. Terich, Jeff. "Oxbow : The Narcotic Story". Treble. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  4. "Album Review: Oxbow - The Narcotic Story". Drowned in Sound. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  5. Handelman, Ben (2017-05-04). "Oxbow's Violent Art Rock Is a Meta-Commentary on Masculinity". Noisey. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  6. "Album review: Oxbow – The Narcotic Story". Scene Point Blank. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  7. "Oxbow - The Narcotic Story". Discogs. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  8. Aaron Burgess (2008-08-30). "OXBOW". Alternative Press. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  12. "Oxbow - The Narcotic Story - Review". Stylus. 2007-08-20. Retrieved 2020-06-29.
  13. "Staff Picks: Aaron Turner". Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  14. "The Complete List of Grammy Nominees". The New York Times. 2007-12-06. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
  15. "Rocklist.net...Rock-A-Rolla Lists." www.rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-03-11.
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