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In these heady days of guitar pop, where the likes of Hard- Fi and Razorlight are regular entrants into the Top 10 and Paul Weller is on his sixteenth comeback, what room is there is for the 7- minute prog- rock epic. Plenty, think Oceansize as they dish out 10 of the bastards on new album ‘Everyone Into Position'.
For those of you unfamiliar with them, Oceansize are a fourpiece based- but not hailing from – Manchester. In 2003 with the release of their debut album ‘Efflorsce' Oceansize began to cause a stir. Support slots for Cooper Temple Clause had started to build them a reputation and soon plaudits were being heaped on them by the some quarters of the press. Unfortunately for Oceansize good debuts require momentum to ensure a successful follow up. Not only have they waited too long to release 'Everyone Into Position', but also it is completely out of step with, well just about anything that is good in music right now.
Album opener ‘The Charm Offensive' shows promise with a drums stolen from Radiohead’s ‘There, There' and guitars from My Bloody Valentine. But the track early on pinpoints the faultine that runs throughout their entire album. That is; 7 minute rambling (sorry epic) guitar pieces are fine as long as a) your are technically proficient band and your rock- outs are worth listening to and b) when the climax of the song does arrive it is worth waiting for. In the case of 9 out the 10 tracks here neither is true.
The only saving grace on this album is 'New Pin' which at just over five minutes is not only the albums tightest track but also it’s best. Drifting through like a post- hit comedown it shows what Oceansize are capable of when discipline gets the better of high adventure. If Oceansize can pull this off regularly then we might just start to have something...maybe.
