As one of their most essential releases, Carrion Crawler/The Dream is a great entryway into Thee Oh Sees' vast and sprawling discography. The music here is more muscular than on any of its predecessors (save some of Help), pointing towards the increasingly heavier turn the band's sound would take later in the 2010s. Some of Thee Oh Sees' signature songs appear here: the album comes out swinging with the mysterious and menacing "Carrion Crawler", one of its two title tracks, before launching into the funhouse romp of "Contraption" (which in turn mutates into a cover of the Can classic "Soul Desert"). But it's the record's other namesake, which kicks off side two, that is so quintessentially Oh Sees it could serve as a mission statment: the live staple "The Dream" sees JPD unleash some of his most inspired guitar heroics.
Carrion Crawler (5:50)
Contraption/Soul Desert (5:21)
Robber Barons (5:15)
Chem-Farmer (4:07)
Opposition (1:38)
The Dream (6:52)
Wrong Idea (1:52)
Crushed Grass (2:52)
Crack in Your Eye (3:41)
Heavy Doctor (3:06)