Banana Boat has made the most refreshing a cappella rock album I have heard in years. Original music, unapologetic autotune, piles of energy, and one unusual, distinctive trait: no vocal percussion. Some of you will now be saying, well of course not, this is a sea shanty group, just ask <group id="289" nocite>the RARB archives</group>. But there are no sea shanties here. Some of these songs don't even have a chorus. There isn't really even any folk music. Folk-inspired, sure. The internet favors "neo-shanty", which may be useful for marketing. But this is primarily a rock album, and a good one at that. Also, they printed CDs and the art and liner notes are gorgeous.

These songs have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There are no time signature changes in a sea shanty, also no complicated lyrics, yet Banana Boat makes ample use of both. They have a deep love of the sea, they tell stories, and they have a large helping of "jen-jen-jen" vocal guitar. If you're looking for musical roots, we're talking at least as much Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) as Haul Away Joe.

Atlas sets the tone, a nordic-rock anthem over drones and a whistle descant. The bass lines are loud and just the right amount of scratchy, the lead vocal confident, the language pleasing and not immediately discernible. Many of the other songs are more obviously sung in Polish, like Złoto, the very slavic Póki czas, or my favorite cut, the terrific Jacques Cartier. The latter has a charming "Great Lakes meets St. Lawrence" vibe, shades of Stan Rogers or Le Vent du Nord, as befits its explorer namesake. Great harmonies. Stirring feel, captures the explorer vibe, edges into contemporary folk territory. This is music for a concert, not a singalong.

The album can roughly be divided into songs where the group sings chorally and those with a soloist over a vocal-instrumental background. Many of the songs also have a Broadway feel, in the way they span genres but also make their own. For example, Tobago has a sea-song swing and also carries echoes of Lin-Manuel Miranda in details like the little turn in the chorus. Inlanders All takes this showtune vibe further. It is a song about the sea, with alternating solo and ensemble; also it's a song for performing on a stage, not singing with your buddies in the bar.

The breadth of songwriting on this album is impressive, particularly given the commitment to singing about the sea. Odyseusz reminds me of a contemporary choral piece by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo, but with a hair-band soloist. ÞAÐ MÆLTI MÍN MÓÐIR, based on an Icelandic melody, puts us firmly back in Nordic rock territory. Spooky, goth, and gloomy, it reasserts Banana Boat's rock foundation. Light seems to lean on 'Tis a Gift to be Simple and Lord of the Dance but morphs into something of its own.

The Grand Gale is my other favorite, with its counterpoint chorus and pop song sensibilities. "Now would be the time for a miracle maybe." We should all be so creative and optimistic. This album is absolutely worth a listen.

The Polish a cappella sextet Banana Boat returns with ONO ("It"). Known for their "neo shanty" style of a cappella music, Banana Boat singers treat listeners to some of the most well-crafted offerings in this niche genre. There are a few English tracks and an Icelandic one as well, but the group sings primarily in its native Polish. For English monoglots, there's reason to dive into the translations, but there is also an undeniable enjoyment of just listening, even without following the plot with any precision. The music conjures.

The album is filled to overflowing with original compositions and arrangements. Tomasz Czarny and Paweł Jędrzejko are the Lennon McCartney of ONO (not Yoko; I'm a dad and cannot resist a good pun), penning 13 of the 14 tracks -an all too rare accomplishment in contemporary a cappella and unheard of in this subgenre. Czarny alone takes on the arranging mantle giving the group's sound a seamless cohesion and matching voices to musical demands nicely.

In tone color, Banana Boat often opts for a more chesty, brasher, brighter tone and simpler arranging style on ONO than typically found in today's a cappella offerings. It's easy to imagine that this stems from the source material and more importantly the scene a faire permeating the group's ethos. Rough edges are a hallmark of seafaring life. How should Banana Boat conjure that authenticity -especially within an art form that often prizes pristine intricacies in pitch, arranging, tone color and dynamics? Threading the needle, they do strike a balance and indeed it may be the best possible one within the genre's demands. But there will be listeners who can't easily make the leap aboard. Caveat auditor: weathered leather will never be silk. Nor should it be.

But it could still have dynamics. Take Atlas. It feels like a slam of vocals. Whether the lyric is introspective or not, the quality is a drone of forte for all 2:13. Złoto continues the throaty, in-your-face sound. Is there also a mezzo forte? Technically. Same with The Grand Gale which makes its few dynamic impacts with occasional space in the arrangement. So, still forte, but less people making the forte. And so on through most of the album. The group is hard set to sailor strength. Straight ahead 'til morning.

But even with the limited dynamics, the melodies are heroic and timeless! The lyrics -as translated- are epic and evoke a life where each day could be our last. It's easy to imagine 300 years of audiences happily listening to these tracks. And it's refreshing to hear original material that doesn't chase trends to manipulate an algorithm -including the longer-than-social-media trend to include vocal percussion. There's none to be found here and it isn't missed a bit.

Subjectively, I like this recording a ton, perhaps even a hair above the scores. It's swarthy. It kicks and brawls. It makes me want to drink with friends and take a journey. And perhaps that was Banana Boat's aim with ONO all along.

This is a curious album for me. I last reviewed Banana Boat nearly a decade ago in early 2016 with the group's album AQUAREAL. I loved it. I nominated it for Album of the Year. Now in 2025, I'm listening to an album that has many of the same earmarks. The voices are the same. The sea shanty stylings are still present and going strong. However, I don't love ONO with the same worldly awe. Where its predecessor shined, this album lacks a sense of storytelling that really impacts the overall value.

This album is filled with many short-lived tracks. Inlanders All is approximately two minutes long. One of my favorite parts of shanties is the story. Each verse tells the next part of the tale, weaving a wonderful tapestry of life. A two-minute song barely begins to tell the story. By the time I am finally invested in the song, it is ending. ÞAÐ MÆLTI MÍN MÓÐIR is the pinnacle of this issue. It is less than one minute long. This track is over before it's begun. When so many tracks are reliant upon the story to generate interest, these tracks become a distraction.

That's not to say that every track falls into this pitfall. Tobago shines brightly as a testament of the group's abilities. This track perfectly bridges the sea shanty with more modern chords and rhythms. This piece tickles my brain in ways no other track on the album does. It's crisp and clean. To a slightly lesser extent, Light also offers this more modern take. The chord arpeggiations and countermelodies are perfectly crisp and clear. These tracks breathe new light into such an old music style. I found myself tied more to these stories told, regardless of if I understood the language.

The other issue that I found as I continued to listen to this album is that it's rather long. In terms of overall length, the album is not much longer than most full-length albums. However, when most of the fifteen tracks are very similar in style and chord structures, it becomes very hard to remain focused on the music for that entire length of time. I found the music fading into the background the longer the album went on and then having to go back to relisten tracks to adequately review. This is of course a feature of sea shanties, allowing the workers of the ship to remain fixed to their task while having a consistent rhythm. It works great for listening to while doing chores, but not as well for a standalone listening experience.

There's still much to love about this album, but that is offset by some of the weaker aspects. The voices are still phenomenal. The group sound is unique and very crisp and clear. The storytelling element of the group is incredibly strong. However, ONO has too many shorter stories that all blend together rather than exist as standalone tales. I would love to hear many of these songs expanded to tell a greater tale. Until then, this album might be good for the occasional listen, but not one I would actively select.