Ox — American Lo Fi

When Ox ascended to the top of Canada's campus chart in 2003, it was kind of like that girl from She's All That becoming prom queen. "She has glasses!" cried outraged naysayers. But we didn't listen and — like the dreamy Freddie Prinze Juniors we are — we embraced the group's unpolished alt.country. Three years later, Ox return with more infectiously untouched and unassuming odes to girls, El Caminos and other calendar-worthy beauties. Sounding like a cross between Neil Young, Jay Farrar and Damien Jurado, singer-songwriter Mark Browning pays homage to his forebears by covering Woody Guthrie's "1913 Massacre" and interpolating segments of John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" on the charmingly unrefined "Martas Song." In the process, the frontman creates an enjoyably earnest and warm listen.

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