The New OK

Combined with The Unraveling, The New OK is a powerful one-two punch to the gut from a band unafraid to lay their political stance out for the world to see. It’s a brave move.

At a time of such division, it’s a startlingly brave record and all the more necessary for it.

A fantastic rocket of a record, which adds to the renaissance brilliance of 21st-century Truckers.

It’s a wake-up call to those of us who are able to see the irony in the album’s name and how it conflicts with the panicked and desperate lyrics that exist at every turn.

The New OK sometimes feels uneven and precarious, which in this context is an asset rather than a failing; as a snapshot of America in October 2020, it's unnervingly accurate and devastatingly relatable, as well as a powerful set of work from a great American band.

Ghosts of Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett float among the slinky groove that could set out on the tide forever as it gorgeously gets the head bobbing and hips swaying around the only non-political track. Those lyrics are the exception though as the upbeat post-punk of “The Perilous Night” bubbles and bounces while sarcastically saying Amen to fascism on the rise, cars cutting down protesters and Red Square shining in the White House; it is a dance party at the end of the world with splashes of the Talking Heads mixed in.

The result is a patchwork quilt of an album, stitched together from scraps gathered here and there—but then, those quilts are often the warmest, the most comforting. ... Especially after the unrelenting darkness of its predecessor, The New OK sounds all the more affecting for not being quite so dire.