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Ocean Colour Scene puzzle me. Just when you think that there is nothing left in the mod-pop gas tank, the obligatory greatest hits and live album have been released and no one really cares anymore, they go and release a new album...and its got Paul Weller on it.
If we’re honest, Ocean Colour Scene were never really that great in the first place. They filled a suitable Oasis shaped gap in the mid-nineties, multi-platinum selling ‘Mosely Shoals’ had its praises sung by none other than the brothers Gallagher themselves, and who can forget the weekly theme music to TFI Friday, ‘The Riverboat Song’. But for every ginger DJ led anthem there was seven or so fillers, musical piracy of anyone from The Jam to the Who, a blend of traditional British soul and R&B, which sounded great at the time, but was never going to change the world.
But what about here and now? 2005, and the boys are back. And they sound exactly like they did when they were last here. Despite several attempts to bring something else to the floor, ‘Free my Name’ has a string section which is almost Motown, and there is an abundance of Phil Spector-esque bells and atmospherics, it’s a album that will undoubtedly struggle against the fusion of styles that is dominating new music today.
Perhaps this is best reflected by the musical cameos on ‘a hyperactive workout…’ Paul Weller’s guitar and Jools Holland piano guide the plod-along rock of ‘Waving not Drowning’, if anything it sounds a bit like Holland on a New Year sing-along and Weller from his more sedate period. While they might be fairly big guns, they are hardly pushing things forward. And it gets worse. ‘Wah Wah’, originally by George Harrison, from the seminal ‘All things must pass’ album is at best a bad cover version for those in the know and another forgettable plodding track for everyone else.
Its not all bad though. Opener, ‘Everything comes at the right time’, with its Led Zeppelin guitar riffs and driving rock chorus has the kind of energy that the boys had back in their heyday. Unfortunately this rollicking intro just doesn’t set the tone for the album, a hyperactive workout this clearly isn’t. In fact, perhaps the highlights are when they calm things down a bit. ‘Move things over’ is hushed and moving, and even sounds a bit like The Temptations. In a similar way, closing track ‘My time’, with drummer Oscar Harrison taking vocal duties, has a kind of offbeat reggae charm which at least shows some of the invention missing on much of the album.
If Ocean Colour Scene were hoping for an Embrace-style comeback, they might have to have a rethink. ‘A hyperactive workout’ just doesn’t say anything new, push any boundaries or even get close to stealing some of the limelight away from the wealth of new British music around at the moment.
