Review We Are The Ocean - Go Now and Live 2011

Why call oneself We Are The Ocean if one has a band? Is it because they all look like saltwater, or fish, maybe octopuses or maybe a combination of all. Maybe they are sons of fisherman, or fisherman’s friends, maybe they all have something to do with the ocean, they might be fish that has migrated onto land and then started making music, lets say that they are. Now lets also say that they are releasing their second album which is named Go Now and Live, to which I reply, sure if I could afford it I would. But lets not discuss that sad fact, lets return to this said album and say that there is some sort of bird on the cover, in some psychedelic way, maybe it is drowning? But, let us just leave this confusing thing of names and albums and whatever else we have accidentally stumbled upon with this, I leave it to Mulder to try and make some sense of it.

The band is described as post-hardcore by some and when I looked that genre up I did not recognise any band bar Sonic Syndicate which I think does not sound like this band, not really close either. It was not really that clear what that particular genre really was either so I state that this band sound a bit like melodic heavy punkrock/metal. They have two vocalists, one more aggressive than the other, no one really growls or does anything like that, giving the band almost an air of alternative rock or something like that. Those who know say that the singer Dan Brown (yes it is the novelist who doubles as a singer for this band when not writing about Langdon, but he has cleverly disguised himself as younger and british which would have been convincing had he used another pseudonym) has been toned down a bit and does not scream as much as before, much to the despair of those who hate when band change even ever so slightly. How it is in my view is unknown since I have not heard anything but this work from these oceanic guys. They are clearly not so heavy that I would put a hardcore label onto them, they are rather melodic and their album has ten tracks which take 33.3 minutes to play if I am to believe the music player in my computer.

It all starts with a track that is called Trouble is Temporary, Time is Tonic which reminds me of Led Zeppelin for the first maybe two seconds before that sense is blown away by the song that is an energetic song with good tempo and feel and the collaboration between the singers work really well here. The video track for this album is called the Waiting room and it is quite dull really, never takes off and bores me quite a bit. Track five on the Other Hand, it is called Troubles and Tribulations and has both a good melody and good energy, a song that is rather enjoyable to listen to. Mainly though this band feels like they are a bit stuck and the songs just slowly move like on an escalator, up to the top and then just falls down to start walking up again, a never ending circle of utter uninterest to be honest. Track six is also alright though and the title says how it should be Overtime is a Crime, it should really be. I must also state that track nine Follow What You Need is a terrible track, it is so repetitive that it takes one listen to know the entire lyrics of it and the melody is so boring that it is more funny to actually sit and watch how paint dries. Why that song is even on the album is as big a mystery as why some people become pedophiles, the two are as good for the world as well.

But enough said about tracks and how bad some of them are, in general I think this album is decent, it never really takes off which I think can be attributed to the fact that they sound as unique as a plastic bag or a mobile phone which of course is not at all. They are also as innovative as a living room carpet or my camera tripod. Still they do have a semi-catchy sound and the album still is quite fun to listen to if you skip track nine which will give you a headache quickly. I think that fans of this kind of music will really like this, it is still well made and they do have some talent even though I think that Dan Brown should stick to writing his novels rather than singing, he does that so much better. Final verdict I think would have been that they are good but they lack identity. And when reading that their fans will call me an idiot and say that I was doing drugs or whatever, but that is my opinion after hearing this album more than fifteen times. The album is okay!

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We Are The Ocean Go Now and Live

We Are The Ocean
Go Now and Live