Oh He Dead Keep Moving Through "Vertigo"
Written By: Big C
Sometimes the best way through Vertigo is to keep moving, and Oh He Dead rarely stay still long enough for the room to settle. The Weight started as a rock song, but the R&B layer gives it a different walk and keeps the track from landing where the opening suggests. The most interesting part is how the band changes color while every switch still feels connected to the same group. Jimmy Mansfield gives those contrasts enough definition for the harder edges and warmer tones to sit beside each other. For keyboardist Piano Whitman, that final song began with a small image carrying a much larger message:
I just kept thinking about this butterfly who has no idea how beautiful she is. We see this beauty in this little bug that brings so much joy and has so much meaning attached to it. And they're really fragile, but they're quite resilient. They keep flying, even with broken wings.
Their new full-length moves through R&B, indie rock, psychedelia, and disco without asking every song to carry all four at once. Claire’s Song leans into friendship with a softer touch, while Puts Me To Shame finds a deeper pocket and lets the groove speak first. From an instructor’s ear, its pulse; By the time Butterfly arrives, the record has earned its lift instead of forcing an anthem onto the ending. That broken-wing resilience gives Vertigo a better center than its title suggests. Bioluminescence, written by Adam Salser during the pandemic, survived the hard-drive stage because a live crowd showed the band that the song belonged in the set. Before the U.S. tour begins October 9 at The Lititz Shirt Factory in Lititz, Pennsylvania, listen to the album available now, and connect with Oh He Dead on INSTAGRAM, FACEBOOK, BANDCAMP, and YOUTUBE.
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