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It's only a short trip back to the main Ocean Doo page... Cerufatty
Overall Album Score: 7.5 out of 10 After loving this band's eponymous debut, I practically leapt upon their follow-up, Cerulean with excitement, and ... and ... *sniff* ... IT'S NOT AS GOOD!!! Boooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!! Much more of the same stuff, except there's a more defined R.E.M. influence (not so much The Smiths this time) and a much less defined sense of originality. Yup, those creative and utterly lovely keyboard arrangements aren't as entrancing or beautiful as they were, and the melodies suffer here, too, I reckon. The Ocean Blue proves here why nobody's ever heard of them. (...Well, there are people who have heard of them, but they are either total nerds, or geeks like me who stumble upon them...) They emerged on the scene with one pretty smashing album and they follow it up with this tepid one without ambition. Overall Album Score: 7.5 out of 10 (A bit of a disappointment. This band's debut impressed me with the very nice keyboard arrangements and lucid atmospherics. This follow-up has some of that, but not enough to make listening to this album particularly worthwhile.) Average Song Score: 8.0 (The sheer pleasantness of everything makes up for any lack of melody or excitement.) Album Tilt: 7.5 (A considerably lesser album than their predecessor, Cerulean isn't an album that I was too thrilled to hear. Again, though, I was actually *pleased* by the thing.) Artist Rating: 7.0 (Nothing new here ... indeed, this is less original than the band's debut. A few of these songs are indistinguishable from your average R.E.M. tune ... except they're not as good.) Track Reviews Breezing Up 7.5/10 Uhhhhhhhh, Michael Stipe, is it you? ... NO!!!! IT CAN'T BE!!! But this song sure does sound like an R.E.M. song ... It's all jangly and stuff, and the singing sounds very much like Stipe. The problem, of course, is that even though it might copy R.E.M., it doesn't quite match up. The R.E.M.-ian atmosphere is always nice to hear, but the melody is lacking quite severly. Cerulean 8/10 Oh, good. The R.E.M. copying is over, and we're back to the same sort of style that The Ocean Blue exhibited all throughout their debut. It's a Smiths song with neat atmospherics. It's not breathtaking or even particularly memorable. There's a nice key change in here, but not very many hooks. Hmmm ... It's certainly a pleasant song, though. I have a difficult time disliking songs that are pleasant. Marigold 8/10 Nice riff, I suppose, and the keyboard inspired thing in a different theme of the song is nice. As a whole, though, the thing might be nice and pleasant to listen to, but it's totally uninspired. Hmmhmm... The Ocean Blue are mellowing out already, methinks. No wonder nobody's ever heard of 'em! A Separate Reality 9/10 'Ere we go! I knew The Ocean Blue still had a bit of stamina left in 'em! This is a very calm, very pleasant, and wonderfully lucid little alternative-rock tune. Just like their debut! Hurrah, hurrah! Mercury 8.5/10 A nicely done groove, methinks. I really like the chorus (very R.E.M., but ... that's no big surprise). Another nicely done song! Questions of Travel 9/10 This total freak-of-a-band put all their good songs in the middle of their album! ... I still think they mellowed out, though. This is exactly like everything from their debut, so they're not advancing at all ... (It's not likely that I'm going to review anymore albums by these guys, I thought I'd mention). It's good only because it's so pleasant! When Life Was Easy 7.5/10 This is a rather weak Smiths type song. The Ocean Blue has done this a lot, and they've done it better! I think the melody is lacking here, in particular, and the atmospherics aren't that great. Still pleasant, though, and likable. The Planetarium Scene 7.5/10 R.E.M to the core ... and they fail to really make it endearing. Just because you can imitate R.E.M. doesn't mean your songs will be automatically endearing! Falling Through the Ice 3.5/5 Instrumental. Short. Pointless. Ballerina Out of Control 8.5/10 This is pretty good! The melody is pretty nice and the alluring, lucid instrumentation is even better! This is another nice Ocean Blue tune. Hurricane Amore 7/10 It's lucid, but ... wow! That melody is so danged simple that ... ugh! Another very R.E.M. song. Hmmhmm! Well, nobody ever blamed The Ocean Blue for being original or exciting. I've Sung One Too Many Songs 8.5/10 Yup. You did! ... Alright, this is as good of a song as any. The lucid arrangements were done very nicely, and I do enjoy the tune. So ... good song! ... And the album is over now! Yeehaw! Don't let your opinions get washed away into the Ocean Blue! Send them right here and preserve them on the Internet forever here! |
