With a stroke of luck, the latest release from Hershey, Pennsylvania's The Ocean Blue might become a chart-topper, but as true music lovers know, this is often not an indication of the quality or originality of the album. The new album sees the band trading the more melancholy and/or blissful songs that constituted previous albums like Cerulean for a raspier, (dare I say?) heavier, "we're rocking now!" style. The Smiths and Cocteau Twins influence is less felt, but to interesting effect.
Despite being generally more strained and direct (especially lead vocals and guitars), the style change is not all-encompassing, for earlier albums were comprised of similar elements of style (bouncy, consistently hasty, whether solemn or joyful). The new songs stick more to the middle of the great "modern rock" paradigm.
See The Ocean Blue is more accurately described as an anthology of mood swings (musically and lyrically) - at times resembling older, lazy Ocean Blue songs ("Slide") or older, jouncy OB songs ("Bite Your Lip"), resembling a more alterna-pop sound ("10 10 Cloud Deck"), or entering a noisy proto-Brit stage ("Bitter").
The album opens with the one-minute instrumental "Jouissance," which would sooner be expected from a Saint Etienne album than this. Then, "Whenever You're Around" and "Out Here", good examples of the coarser, more conventional feel of the album, despite such "experimental" buzzes and noises scattered here and there. "Ways and Means" (despite the superb vocal handling of the line "and leave you dry-AYE-AYE-AYE-AYE!") is a more trademark Ocean Blue song, but not quite comfortable yet. "Past Future Perfect" is a nice acoustic number; "Bitter", though uncharacteristic, is one of the most well-done, biting songs here - short and energetic as hell, unlike many of the other upbeat songs that bore the listener with so-so hooks and vocals. "Slide" appropriately follows, and is one of the only successful melancholy ventures present. The rest follow in a similar, widely varying manner.
Besides being less interesting and emotive than earlier works, The Ocean Blue's newest, while making many fans cringe, will likely appeal to most as a clean, straightforward, albeit uninventive album.
