Drive-By Truckers frontman Patterson Hood has been working on Murdering Oscar and Other Love Songs for almost two decades. There are songs from the early 90s, written a few months before the breakup of Adam’s House Cat. There are songs written as Hood was forming The Drive-By Truckers with Mike Cooley. There are songs written while on the road with the DBTs, and songs written in his daughter’s room. Murdering Oscar was written during every phase of Patterson Hood’s adult life, which makes it very personal.
Although the songs were written at different times, Murdering Oscar does not have the scattershot pacing of a b-sides collection. The songs build on each other, creating a perfect balance. The dark themes are offset by lighter, more nostalgic moments.
The music isn’t far removed from Hood’s work with The Drive-By Truckers, a hybrid of Southern rock and traditional country. Hood throws a couple curveballs in as well, including a cover of Todd Rundgren’s “The Range War.” Hood slows down the tempo slightly, turning into a traditional country ballad. He plays piano on “Pride of the Yankees,” and although he claims to have rudimentary knowledge of the instrument, the melody is gorgeous.
Sonically, Murdering Oscar is unlike any other record released this year. The entire album was recorded on vintage analog equipment, and you don’t have to be an audiophile to appreciate how great it sounds. With a good pair of headphones, you can isolate every instrument and pick up all the subtleties of the arrangements. The warmth of the sound is a welcome relief from the overproduced slickness of most modern music. Murdering Oscar sounds like it could have been made at Muscle Shoals in the mid-70s.
This is appropriate, since Hood’s father David was a member of Muscle Shoals session band. David Hood plays bass on several tracks. Family is a recurring theme on Murdering Oscar, both immediate and extended. Many of the songs deal with Hood coming to terms with being a first time father. On “Pride of the Yankees,” he talks about protecting his daughter from the evils of the post-9/11 world. The Lou Gehrig reference is a callback to a seemingly simpler time, but also functions as a subtle reminder that the world has always been unstable. “Granddaddy” is the polar opposite of “Pride.” Hood is genuinely thrilled to be a father, and there is audible joy in his voice when he sings about hiding candy around the house “so all the little ones will come and see me.”
There have been a lot of big ticket albums released in the past two weeks. They came with so much hype that it was almost like they were products. You were listening to a brand extension, not an album. Murdering Oscar and Other Love Songs is not a product, it’s an album. These songs were written at different times, but they all work. This is a testament to Patterson Hood’s ability as a songwriter and an artist. By taking his time and not rushing anything, he created a beautiful piece of work. When was the last time you bought an album that had complete liner notes? It’s the little touches that make this album so special. When the final notes of “Back of a Bible” fade out, you feel like you’ve spent time with an old friend. That’s a rare thing.