Oil and Gold is surprising for several reasons. For one, the departure of singer\u002Fguitarist Carl Marsh midway through produced no noticeable dip in the record's quality. For another, live drums appear for the first time on a Shriekback album, thanks to Martyn Barker, a longtime associate who was added to the band at the tail end of the Jam Science sessions. Most surprising, though, is how much this album rocks out, particularly on the songs featuring ex-Damned guitarist Lu Edmonds. It even yielded an out of left field hit single in Nemesis, which not only uses the word parthenogenesis, but rhymes it successfully, and does so in the chorus. In truth, Oil and Gold is six-tenths of a great album. It leads off with the rip-roaring one-two-three punch of Malaria, Everything That Rises Must Converge, and Fish Below the Ice, all featuring Marsh on vocals. These are followed by This Big Hush and Faded Flowers, two tremendously beautiful slow numbers sung by Barry Andrews, who took over for Marsh as lead