SECRET WARS

This is their masterpiece, although all of their albums are good and several are great. Here is where they strike the perfect balance between appealing noise, psychedelic jamming, and strong songwriting. From a songwriting perspective, the (relatively) weakest tracks are the two side openers, which nevertheless are sonically engaging and in context fit the album well. The rest of the songs are great in every respect. The highlights for me are probably "Caesar's Column," which is probably the band's finest moment, and "Changes in the Sky" (which also seems to be called "Changes in the City" sometimes, I'm not sure which is correct, if one is a typo, or if they are just alternate titles). The latter is a repetitive freaky instrumental that is so perfect that it could be twice as long without eliciting any complaints from me.

Oneida is a really excellent band, one of the 21st century's finest. Their output is quite diverse, and sometimes whole albums seem like digressions, although generally they are fun and interesting ones. This is the album where they bear down and produce a focused, full bore masterpiece.