Ocean Colour Scene: Moseley Shoals

Moseley Shoals

Best song: Policemen & Pirates

Worst song: You’ve Got It Bad

Overall grade: 5

Ocean Colour Scene were an English band that began in the nineties, and they were too late for Madchester and too rocky for Britpop, which, if you take this album as your focus point, is more than a little unfair. I mean, the group weren’t necessarily full of new musical ideas, but how many new musical ideas WERE there in 1996? Anyway, what these four guys lacked in originality, they made up for in diversity, because there’s a whole range of different influences on this album.  Yes, you have the obvious Beatles and Stones, but there’s also some more unexpected bands you can hear echoes of, like Television and the 3-minute single side of psychedelia. And despite the fact that most of the songs follow a predictable quiet verse/loud chorus pattern, the odd instrumental section makes it quirky and adds something refreshingly different.

Most people who are familiar with this album know it for its singles, of which there are four. The most notable are ‘The Riverboat Song’ and ‘The Day We Caught The Train’. If Ocean Colour Scene are a pop-rock band, then the first one is definitely the rock and the first one the pop, and both are great, although of the studio versions I slightly prefer ‘Riverboat Song’. ‘The Day We Caught The Train’ was clearly written to be performed live, but luckily some of the magic manages to carry through into this studio version. It’s all about the chorus – the verses basically just exist in anticipation of the big moment – but it is a glorious chorus; one that’s sure to make you feel good about pretty much everything.

‘The Circle’ was another, and though it was possibly a less obvious choice of single (owing to its fairly long instrumental ending which happens to be the best part) on the album it continues the trend of being really good. The electric guitars stand out, bright and tangy (yes, that’s the word I meant to use: they remind me of the musical equivalent of a citrus fruit, surprisingly but not unpleasantly strong). But the final single, ‘You’ve Got It Bad’, is equal parts boring and dull, probably the only faster song where the band’s knack for catchiness doesn’t see them through.

For similar reasons, I would also consider skipping ‘Lining Your Pockets’, since the melody really doesn’t grab me and the band have no energy in the quiet, ballady parts.

The obvious choice would be to put one of the two opening tracks as best song, but truthfully a lot of the later album cuts are crazily underrated. Let’s start with ‘Fleeting Mind’, a far superior ballad to ‘Pockets’, and the start of the more serious middle section of the record. The backing music is interesting in its own right here, not just acting as a backdrop for the vocals as it does in some places. The best part is where Simon sings ‘That’s not hard to forget…’, a line that tugs at the heartstrings and possibly also the vocal chords.

‘One For The Road’ is actually a really sad story, with a strong message about being careful while drinking and partying, but it never gets preachy, mostly down to the swinging ‘get up and dance; get up and smile’ chorus that lets go a bit more than the slightly over the top melancholy of the first couple of lines. ‘It’s My Shadow’ is another one that mixes prettieness and direct emotion with its building chorus and anthemic hook, to great effect. But even these don’t come close to the unquestionable highlight that is ‘Policemen & Pirates’. Nobody from OCS has ever been referred to as a lyrical genius, but the curious, metaphorical lyrics here always make me stop and think: ‘The house caught on fire in the winter/The bosses lay slain/And each of the workers decided to tenfold their pay’. Musically, it expertly fuses rock and soul and juxtapositions a smooth vocal melody with jumpy intermittent percussion and has a really cool guitar riff at the beginning.

At almost eight minutes long, it’ll come as no surprise that the prog influence is felt most on the closer ‘Get Back’. It makes for an outstanding finish – a mostly instrumental piece with a very involved performance from everyone. They took a risk putting this on their album, both stylistically and with their fanbase, but it was definitely worth it – stretching their abilities and incorporating a wider range of instruments while remaining accessible.

This isn’t your typical mainstream pop rock album, but it isn’t alt rock either, and perhaps their lack of identification with any scene or label is why OCS were never crazily successful, despite their ties with Blur. It could also be to do with the fact that they peaked with this album and then moved into a more dad rock style, always staying listenable but nowhere near as engaging. Still, labels are unnecessary – anyone with an ear for melody who doesn’t need things to be too complicated is sure to find something to enjoy on this album.

Beautiful Days Festival 2013

Beautiful Days Festival 2013

Dates: 16-18 August 2013

Location: Epcot Park, Devon, England

Headliners: Ocean Colour Scene / Primal Scream / The Levellers

This past weekend I took a break from music reviewing and headed off to a festival instead! It was a pretty awesome weekend. Now, of course, in the modern age festivals sell most of their tickets before they announce which bands are playing, which just goes to show that the majority of people don’t go for the music, they go for the overall experience. In addition, I wasn’t really attending as a reviewer, but as someone looking to have fun and hopefully discover a new band… that being said, I thought I’d have a go at writing up some of what I saw. Artists tagged are ones I hope to write more about later - you've been warned.

Friday

Viv Albertine: In the 70s she was guitarist for female punk band The Slits, but hadn’t been in the music business since then until last year. You could tell she was so rusty; reading her own lyrics off a computer or forgetting to play any notes. The songs themselves kind of sucked too. They were repetitive, all played at the same medium-fast tempo, and her vocals sounded exactly the same on every single one. But the worst part was her between song chatter, which was trying way too hard to be funny. There was a feminist side to some of her lyrics, but at this point she was literally trying to make the men objectify her. She needs to realise that she can’t take 25 years off, come back and expect things to be like she never left.

Ocean Colour Scene: Friday’s headliners are a largely unknown Britpop band who’ve been around for about 25 years now, and I’ll discuss why they’re forgotten more when I review their sophomore album ‘Moseley Shoals’ (soon). Half of them were actually at the festival last year, and I saw them play an intimate acoustic set. This full-band main stage performance was the complete opposite but at least as good, with the already-brilliant ‘The Day We Caught The Train’ being turned into a singalong anthem than united the crowd. It should have been the encore, but I guess they thought that was a cliché, and I’ve nothing against their cover of ‘Day Tripper’, which was very respectable as Beatle covers go. I enjoyed the whole set, Simon Fowler’s very powerful voice elevating even the lesser new material (which was kept to a minimum with just a handful of songs from their this year’s album).

Saturday

65daysofstatic: I’d heard of this all-instrumental band before the weekend and they sounded like very much my kind of thing, but I’d never checked them out. So this weekend I made everyone go, which meant that if they’d sucked it would have been all my fault… luckily, they didn’t suck. In fact, they were totally awesome! I could hear influences of Sigur Ros, Radiohead, 90s house music and 70s krautrock, and there was widespread appeal to it all, because you could dance to it but it could also be listened to on a much more cerebral level – I have nothing but respect for bands that can do that. Add that they were all multi-instrumentalists who changed instruments as though they were changing hats, and that not once did I think a song of theirs would be improved by lyrics, and it’s no wonder everyone was impressed. I particularly liked their song second from the end, but as they didn’t announce titles, I have no way of knowing what it was, which sucks.

Primal Scream: I like this band on record but when Bobby Gillespie came on and played the first song, I was underwhelmed. I couldn’t hear it all that well and it wasn’t a particularly well chosen opener. So I was preparing to be disappointed, but the second song, a ‘Screamadelica’ cut, was much better. Really he should have played all of that album, given the audience’s response to everything they played from it. The group’s blend of Rolling Stones-esque pure rock’n’roll and dance music with a touch of trippy 60s psychedelia was perfect late at night, with ‘Come Together’ being a particularly good moment. I wish they’d played ‘Higher Than The Sun’ though, since that’s my favourite Primal Scream song. I also wasn’t a fan of the drum solo that closed it: a good drum solo should have  a beginning, middle and end, while this was just a whole lot of endings, like he couldn’t choose just one he liked.

Sunday

Citizen Fish: An offshoot of anarchist 80s band Culture Shock, this was billed to me as ‘forty minutes of political ranting’, which made no sense. If you have something to say but no music or melodies, then write a book, or poetry, or a blog! I was very surprised to find that Dick Lucas and his backing musicians have actual tunes to back themselves up, although the focus is very much on his opinions, which he has a lot of. He’s clearly very passionate about what he’s saying, so it’s a shame that we couldn’t all have had lyric booklets. As it was, I heard a brief description at the beginning of each song but then couldn’t make out much more. It was a good show, but it would have been better in a crowd of really dedicated fans who agree with everything he says. But he’s not a proper anarchist anymore – he claimed to have 5 songs to go with only 10 minutes on the clock, but in fact managed to finish on time.

Dodgy: This power-pop three piece were a great 90s singles band, but apparently they have a full five studio albums – who knew? Still, forgetting them (I assume everyone does) they are the embodiment of a good festival band, with their collection of unchallenging, catchy hits which are simple enough to have people singing along even if it’s their first listen. Some people complained that the performance ‘lacked energy’ but I think that the slowed down versions of their upbeat songs really complemented the fact that it was after lunch, in the baking sun, on the final day. Who wouldn’t rather be sitting down at that point? My only complaint was that their set was very short. I could have happily listened to them for quite a while longer.

Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel: Probably the most highly anticipated act of the entire weekend for me, Harley both delivered and disappointed. Set length was again an issue, this time because he has a pretty big career to cover. The hour might just have been long enough had I been allowed to pick the setlist, but unfortunately it was more tailored to the casual passerby than to the fans, meaning there was hardly any representation from the first two Cockney Rebel albums. But as much as I’d have loved to see him play ‘Death Trip’, he’s a great performer no matter what, bringing a whole new lease of life to the Beatles’ ‘Here Comes The Sun’, and working hard to get the crowd involved in singing the chorus to ‘Make Me Smile’ (yes, he finished with the hit, but who can complain when it’s such an amazing song?) I feel like my only problems with this would be sorted out if I saw him play somewhere where he and his band are the only name on the ticket. Hopefully someday I will.

Roy Harper: Headlining the second stage was something of an unknown quantity, in that it could have been great or it could have been terrible. After all, a cranky 72-year-old alone on stage with a small collection of guitars playing difficult, heavy-going is hardly a traditional recipe for festival success. But then, this wayward Dylan is certainly not a traditional guy. He is, however, an excellent player and songwriter with an incredibly loyal fanbase – there were fifty or so people at the front who I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d bought the festival tickets just to see him. On the opposite end of the scale, there was a guy at the back who might have bought a ticket just to heckle him. He yelled “I’m going to self-destruct if you keep playing!” to which Roy replied that he should come up on stage and do it in front of everyone. The guy left. Someone who provokes such polarising reactions like that has to be worth paying attention to, and while I’m not going to start following him around the country, I am going to investigate further. Reviews may follow.

The Levellers: This band actually invented the festival, and still organise it every year, and as such they get to both open it (with an acoustic set Friday lunchtime) and close it (as the only band playing on a major stage Sunday night). I can’t really argue with that, especially when they’re this good at it. They play exactly as a festival finale should be played: loud, fast, energetic and positive, trying to draw a crowd of thousands together after a weekend of everyone watching completely different things. Essentially, their music is folk rock, but it’s a million miles from the quiet, pastoral style that implies, often including more hard rock and punk influences. While I only recognised a small handful of songs (I left before their set last year) everything they played had me dancing, and I didn’t want it to end – which it eventually did with a spectacular firework display. They weren’t the best band I saw all weekend, but I can’t think of one that should have replaced them as the final act.

Miscellaneous

In addition to all the full sets, I saw part of The Selecter, a long-running ska band who I enjoyed in the festival setting but who probably wouldn’t be my first port of call if I were to seriously investigate the ska genre. I also saw the beginning of Imelda May’s set. She’s a modern Irish musician who looks like she’s from the 1920s and who sings like she’s part of American roots rock, and what I saw was enough to make a good impression. I saw all of The Wonder Stuff and I remember it being good fun, but it can’t have been particularly memorable if that’s as specific as my recollections get. At least there are no bad ones, I suppose. On the less musical side, I saw a great comedian called Robin Ince on Friday who you should definitely check out if you’re into intelligent comedy at all… but I wouldn’t know where to start  on reviewing that.

I also played the game Desert Island Discs with some people, which is a fictional situation where you’re stranded on an island with only 10 songs to keep you company. I managed to get mine to run well over the length of three albums.