By the mid-1990s, Dirty Three were so well-known for frantic, violin-led crescendos that the decision to focus on slower, sleepier compositions for 1998’s Ocean Songs feels somewhat radical. Recorded by Steve Albini (Pixies, Nirvana) with his characteristic live-in-the-room sound, this hour-plus album relies on subtle tidal shifts rather than dramatic climbs and feels more like the result of improvising in real time. Yet the maritime theme gives these tracks a guiding mood that allows them to flow together as one organic statement. There are none of the jarring jags heard on 1996’s Horse Stories or the trio’s earlier work, and violinist Warren Ellis, guitarist Mick Turner and drummer Jim White are even more audibly working closely in tandem here. While it does represent a considerable mellowing for the band—at least for the time being—Ocean Songs still shines through with plenty of mercurial magic. If “The Restless Waves” unfolds like a woozy sea shanty, “Distant Shore” gradually builds more power and presence and the 10-minute “Authentic Celestial Music” shows that the players’ talent for rising intensity has only been couched rather than eschewed. And though “Black Tide” is quiet to the point of almost disappearing, it opens the door for the following “Deep Waters”, a 16-minute meditation mingling beautifully circular violin motifs with ropy guitar lines and delicately brushed drums. The closing “Ends of the Earth”, meanwhile, foregrounds the piano for a change as Ellis turns to that instrument without fanfare. Gastr Del Sol’s David Grubbs plays piano and harmonium on a handful of other tracks, adding another point of distinction to this relative outlier in the Dirty Three canon. By this point in the trio’s trajectory, they were becoming in-demand collaborators on outside projects. Ellis had joined Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and Turner and White backed Cat Power on her Melbourne-recorded opus Moon Pix, released just six months after Ocean Songs. Turner and White began playing and recording as the Tren Brothers, and a few years later Dirty Three melded blissfully with Low on the 2001 mini album In the Fishtank 7. In other words, despite this somewhat anticlimactic detour, their collective stock remained as valuable as ever.