The story of Oso Oso’s new album life till bones begins with tragedy: A month after recording the demos to what would become his 2022 LP sore thumb, emo-pop dignitary Jade Lilitri’s cousin and creative partner Tavish Maloney died suddenly at 24. Lilitri isn’t necessarily known for bringing collaborators into the studio – he’s admitted to being a bit controlling, playing most, if not all instruments himself – but Maloney had been there for the entire recording process. Lilitri wasn’t planning on releasing the demos as-is, but he decided the world had to hear those songs the same way Maloney last heard them. With a touch of minimal final mixing, Lilitri let sore thumb into the world. There was no other way to do it while keeping a quiet conscience.
Only a couple of years have passed since the hedonistic, disoriented sore thumb and the events surrounding it. But grief has a way of distorting one’s sense of time, of stretching individual days into long, grueling cycles where the sunrise and sunset feel arbitrary. When you’re fighting tooth and nail to remember every detail of a person you’ve lost, how can you spend any energy on anything else? “I remember it all/ I mean, it wasn’t all that long ago,” Lilitri sings over the peppy guitar chug of “Stoke,” one of the many standouts on life till bones. It feels like a spiritual extension of sore thumb’s “Describe You,” where the lines between life and death and the barriers of reality and hallucinations are equally blurred. If that album harped on the crucial role of bro-ing out, then life till bones is the harsh comedown that follows.
Doing the “right thing” — or, at the very least, the pursuit of it — is a common motif in the Oso Oso lexicon, especially in the context of romantic relationships. But Lilitri is also the first to admit when his actions don’t necessarily align with his morals. “I’ve got a lot to apologize for,” he sings to a dissatisfied partner on the propulsive “Country Club.” “Ain’t that what love is, my fault?” On the peppy early single “That’s What Time Does,” he imagines the two of them stagnant in a faulty boat on the brink of collapse: “My sunshine, and my little go-getter/ Off to find someone who knows you better,” the implication being that cheerfulness and ambition don’t always come quite as naturally to him. But there’s also an air of hope and perseverance across the album: “I want you so bad/ Want my time stolen,” Lilitri repeats on the power pop jam “Application.” Especially now, he should know the importance of spending your time on earth wisely — that he wants someone else to “steal” his limited remaining moments regardless feels not like submission, but unadulterated adoration.
Much of life till bones concerns life’s futility; even the album’s title and skeleton-ridden artwork seem to imply that our mortal existence is nothing more than what happens until we die. But to Lilitri, these grisly revelations are freeing, splitting the difference between saying “fuck it, nothing matters” with a defeated sigh and saying “fuck it, nothing matters” with a satisfied grin. “There’s a blissful ignorance in me/ Not knowing ‘til I get knocked down on my ass once again,” he muses on “Application,” a useful reminder that the occasional ass-knocking is inevitable. life till bones is a document of Lilitri at near-rock bottom, but as long as there’s still love to be felt and songs to get stuck in your head, you can feel his relief in understanding that he can only go up from here.
And while we’re on the topic of songs to get stuck in your head: Because life till bones is an Oso Oso album, there’s no shortage of those here. Lilitri has described the album as “dancier,” and that comes through in the syncopated hi-hats on the bridge of “Country Club,” the “Some Kind Of Cadwallader” clap-clap-claps of “All Of My Love,” and the Strokes-esque bass jive of “Skippy.” If you swapped in Sheryl Crow’s vocals on the mid-tempo cruiser “Dog Without Its Bark,” it’d still make sense. A decade (and one less “oso“) into this project, Lilitri’s instinct for writing pop hooks has only become clearer, allowing him to successfully ride multiple “waves” of emo — fourth, fifth, does it matter? — without staggering.
A few summers ago, I visited Yellowstone National Park with my family. While we were there, I was surprised to learn that small, infrequent forest fires are actually beneficial: The resulting vacancy gives the forest’s lower levels a rare chance to take advantage of the summer sun. A natural example of destruction as a genesis for regrowth struck a chord with me. (After all, can you really be so back if it isn’t so over first?) “I’m still coughin’ up smoke from that flame you keep stoked,” Lilitri recalls on “Stoke.” I glean from that line two possible meanings: literally adding fuel to a potentially devastating fire, or metaphorically inciting pure, innocent exhilaration. I like to think Lilitri finds significance in both.
life till bones is out 8/9.
Other albums of note out this week:
• Beabadoobee’s This Is How Tomorrow Moves
• King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s b741
• MAVI’s Shadow Box
• Fucked Up’s Another Day
• Polo G’s Hood Poet
• Latto’s Sugar Honey Iced Tea
• Belong’s Realistic IX
• Osees’ SORCS 80
• Big Sean’s Better Me Than You
• Kali Uchis’ ORQUÍDEAS Parte 2
• Louis Cole’s nothing
• Logic’s Ultra 85
• Chlöe’s Trouble In Paradise
• Ravyn Lenae’s Bird’s Eye
• J Balvin’s RAYO
• Amos Lee’s Transmissions
• NIKI’s Buzz
• And So I Watch You From Afar’s Megafauna
• Destroy Boys’ Funeral Soundtrack #4
• Peter Cat Recording Co.’s BETA
• Larry June’s Doing It For Me
• Mamaleek’s Vida Blue
• Quivers’ Oyster Cuts
• Milton Nascimento & Esperanza Spalding’s Milton + esperanza
• LA LOM’s LA LOM
• Skylar Gudasz’s COUNTRY
• Little Hag’s Now That’s What I Call Little Hag
• Energy Slime’s Planet Perfect
• Davidsson’s Lifelines
• The Dead Tongues’ I Am A Cloud
• Justin Townes Earle’s ALL IN: Unreleased & Rarities (The New West Years)
• Elvis Presley’s MEMPHIS
• Florence Clementine’s One Mile Upstream
• Maxwell Stern’s In The Good Light
• Krononaut’s Krononaut II
• niina’s honestly, does this smell off to you?
• Mushroomhead’s Call The Devil
• Nicole Marxen’s Thorns
• Nova Charisma’s Metropolitan
• Cloud Cult’s Alchemy Creek
• The Candy Whips’ Artificial Melodies
• Fulci’s Duck Face Killings
• Google Earth’s Street View
• Grace Bowers’ Wine On Venus
• KITE’s VII
• Billiam’s Animation Cel
• Never Ending Fall’s American Disco
• Various Artists’ Yo Gabba GabbaLand! Season 1 Soundtrack
• Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Opus Live Album
• Pig Destroyer’s Painter Of Dead Girls 20th Anniversary Deluxe Reissue
• Spoon’s They Want My Soul 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
• Tune-Yards’ Nikki Nack (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
• Torres & Fruit Bats’ A Decoration EP
• Everyone Asked About You’s Never Leave EP
• Juliet Ivy’s Tiny But Scary EP
• Sun Room’s Can’t Explain EP
• 16 Underground’s Drifting Deeper EP
• Nicolas Bougaïeff’s EP3 EP
• Logic1000’s mother :;~ rebirth EP
