6. Joya (1997)

From the crunching chords and tense piano that kick off Joya’s opening track, it’s clear that Oldham’s found his confidence again after the misstep, Arise, Therefore. (Boom, boom, the drum machine is dead). On songs like the lost friendship tragedy, “Antagonism,” Oldham possesses a newfound control in his vocal performance, able to sound ashamed without sounding ashamed of his own voice. He also begins to make peace with the darkness inside himself, a theme he would fully explore to great ends on his next album, I See a Darkness, singing, “Why keep awful thoughts and feelings inside of thee / Why not mete them out ever so generously?”

Sex is another thing Oldham is able to consider with more levity than before. It’s still a cosmic head-trip for him, but at least he’s able to laugh about it as on “Rider.” (Spoiler: Oldham’s grandpa-beard is the thing being rode).

In a review of its bleaker predecessor Arise, Therefore, Drowned in Sound’s Aaron Lavery writes that because of the stark production and uncompromising attitude, “There’s no hiding from these dark tales and the characters that inhabit them.” That’s true, but at his best Oldham is more than a mere dispatcher of depressing stories. And I prefer my Oldham with a sense of humor like the one exhibited on Joya; not to soften the blows of his sad observations, but because it helps paint a more complete picture of the human experience.