Listing Ship specializes in writing nautically-themed folk songs and sea shanties. Sure, the audience for that may small, but specializing in a modernized version of a defunct musical genre worked well enough for the Dresden Dolls, so there’s no reason to knock it this time around. The level of nautical influence varies from track to track on A Hull Full of Oil and Bone. Some songs are traditional folk ballads, while others, like the crazy title track, sound like something you’d hear on Captain Ahab’s iPod (between Mastodon cuts) . It’s all a bit overpowering in its weirdness, but Listing Ship never take themselves too seriously, and that’s what saves them. Their cleverness is most abound in the perverse romantic ballad “Coal-Hearted Woman,” which begins as a Irish folk song between two lovers, before dropping the wonderfully obscene line “I’d like to sink my shaft in your soft Virginia hills,” followed by a chorus of “let me come inside.” Damn these are some nasty mother folkers! In case you haven’t already figured it out A Hull full of Oil and Bone isn’t for everyone, and unless you celebrate National Talk Like a Pirate Day or attend Renaissance festivals, it probably isn’t going to be your thing. However, this is your thing, then you’ve probably just found your new favorite band. (Listing Ship 2008)
