It’s probably fair to say that The Ocean ultimately disappointed a little with their 2010 records ‘Heliocentric’ and ‘Anthropocentric’. Whilst their previous album, 2007’s epic ‘Precambrian’ had managed to match an astonishingly ambitious concept to a thoroughly interesting and consistently listenable set of tracks, the aforementioned pair seemed to struggle a little to live up to the grandiose anti-religious ideas the band tried to present.
Three years later and ‘Pelagial’ arrives. By the standards of The Ocean the concept, focused around a journey down to the very depths of the ocean, is pretty straightforward, and, to be fair, you can trace said journey along the progress of the album. As the record progresses from an almost breathy airiness in its opening moments it becomes ever denser and more claustrophobic. You can almost feel the water pressure ramping up as you dive with band mastermind Robin Staps and his crew all the way down.
Conceptually then, this album is sound. In fact, perhaps due to its relative simplicity, this might be the most fully realised The Ocean concept to date. As a follow-up to previous records however, ‘Pelagial’ is sadly still found slightly wanting. It is probably unfair to expect the band to produce something on an equal level with ‘Precambrian’, and I’m sure Staps is fed up of hearing such a thing anyway, but ‘Pelagial’ just isn’t as good a listen. There are some brilliant riffs, and some pleasingly ambitious musical ideas, but there are also moments when you could be forgiven for wanting to put something a bit more exciting on.
You see, there really isn’t anything all that new about ‘Pelagial’. Most of the compositional ideas are ones that the band has already touched upon, and they have done most of them slightly better in the past. Furthermore, whilst touches of piano and strings may be conceptually suited to the album, they sometimes feel musically unnatural. The same could be said of Loïc Rosetti’s vocals. He was a controversial full-time addition to the band three years ago and he is unlikely to change too many minds here. An unremarkable harsh vocalist, his cleans are by no means bad, but they still don’t sound perfectly suited to the musical surroundings he is given.
Interestingly, ‘Pelagial’ was originally intended to be instrumental. Rosetti was ill during much of the writing and recording process, and his inclusion was fairly last minute. At times this really shows, as his voice rests somewhat bizarrely on top of, or in the flow of, some of the moments that, on the instrumental version of the album that is still being issued as a companion piece, showcase best of all The Ocean’s increasingly widescreen musical all. The instrumental version may, in fact, be a more rewarding listen overall, which begs the question of why Rosetti was shoehorned onto the release if his presence was ultimately unnecessary. Through little fault of his own, his appearances on ‘Pelagial’ end up distracting from some of the finest musical ideas, which is a shame.
‘Pelagial’ is a good deal better than most of the bands plying a similar trade at the moment, but a few aspects mean that it ends up falling slightly short of the mark. The Ocean’s ambition makes their mistakes easy to forgive, but what is most concerning is that ‘Pelagial’ is full of moments that require very minimal tweaking. This isn’t the band that briefly lost their way on parts of their 2010 opuses, but instead this is a band that seems to have forgotten to iron out some crucial details, which really isn’t very like The Ocean at all.
‘Pelagial’ is out on Monday 29th April via Pelagic Recordings.
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Three years later and ‘Pelagial’ arrives. By the standards of The Ocean the concept, focused around a journey down to the very depths of the ocean, is pretty straightforward, and, to be fair, you can trace said journey along the progress of the album. As the record progresses from an almost breathy airiness in its opening moments it becomes ever denser and more claustrophobic. You can almost feel the water pressure ramping up as you dive with band mastermind Robin Staps and his crew all the way down.
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