 OceanLab - Sirens Of The Sea Released: 21 Jul 2008 Label: Anjunabeats Tracklist
01. Just Listen [3:50]
02. Sirens Of The Sea [5:56]
03. If I Could Fly [5:12]
04. Breaking Ties [5:14]
05. Miracle [6:43]
06. Come Home [4:34]
07. On A Good Day [5:57]
08. Ashes [6:30]
09. I Am What I Am [4:46]
10. Lonely Girl [5:32]
11. Secret [5:20]
12. On The Beach [4:45]
13. Breaking Ties (Flow Mix) [6:11] Review Tony, Paavo and Jono have finally managed to get the time to make the debut OceanLab album, with the beautiful vocals from the voice of Trance for me anyway, Justine Suissa. After months of anticipation, it hit stores in July and I've finally got the chance to write an in-depth review on what for me is one of the best produced albums of the year.
Just Listen: The opening track of the album is a very chilled affair, with Justine's beautiful vocals sublimely layered across wide pads, strings and light plucks. It sets the tone for the album as many people were expecting full out Club mixes, quite the opposite here.
Sirens of the Sea: Now I don't know why, but Sirens of the Sea has never really like sprung out on me. It's still a good produced track, but it just doesn't spring to mind as one of my personal favourites from the album. More sublime pads and similar plucks in use to Just Listen here tho. In contrast to Just Listen, this track features a light beat which helps give the track a nice flow.
If I Could Fly: Now I really like the lyrics on this track. Very clear vocals from Justine, with more beautiful pads and sounds that give a real layering and wide sound which takes you to the beach. Great work again from the boys.
Breaking Ties: I actually prefer the 'Flow Mix' of this track (which is reviewed later on). This one features a nice soft breakbeat and guitar however and is a slightly more upbeat version of Breaking Ties. Justine does some nice vocal work on this one, "de de de dum" really sounds nice!
Miracle: Probably my second favourite track on the entire album, this track rocks. The piano helps give the track some momentum whilst the pads and light plucks give it an atmospheric feel. The melody I absolutely adore, and this is made into good use on the additional Club Mix of this track which was released recently. The vocals are really profound and thought-provoking (referring to the threat of Global Warming). The video to this track is also absolutely amazing, really top stuff and proper OceanLab.
Come Home: One of the most upbeat tracks on the album, this one features a proper bassline and also some nice plucks again. The lyrics once again help tell a story, "stop time and turn the clocks back" being one of the most profound lines in the song for me! Top stuff again!
On A Good Day: My favourite track on the album, I can't wait until this is made into a full on Trance mix. The melody is wonderful and the section at 1:42 is just beautiful, the piano and pads working amazingly well with the awesome vocals from Justine. A sidechained slightly harder pad comes in and really helps give the track some momentum as this one also features a beat. A second breakdown comes in later before building up again and really turning this track into a fabulous one.
Ashes: The opening part of this track is quite incredible, with the piano and tribal sort of noises. I think if they had kept this for some more of the intro without the vocals it would have really been nice to have a slightly more instrumental track as I think these instrumentals work brilliantly. However, OceanLab wouldn't be OceanLab without Justine's voice and therefore I guess this is impossible. The rest of the track is once again brilliant.
I Am What I Am: Like Breaking Ties, this track features a light breakbeat and I could really imagine myself just laying back chilling to this on a sunny afternoon. It has that sort of "lounge" feel, which in some ways I like and some ways I don't as I think the sublime pads shown in the earlier tracks work incredibly well and form that "OceanLab" sound and therefore this is perhaps one of my lesser liked tracks on the album.
Lonely Girl: Another slightly disappointing track, this one you can feel a slight commercial feel on it. It's once again missing those pads and plucks and instead features a bassline and a beat. It's still a nice track, but once again nothing particularly special.
Secret: I like this track more as it goes back to that more OceanLab sound which the last couple of tracks lacked. The lyrics are once again thought provoking, the very light beat works nicely here in conjunction with the vocals and the harmonies work nicely on the vocals.
On The Beach: This one is nice and has once again got that Lounge feel because of the lack of pads and plucks here, instead it features a breakbeat and some nice guitar work. I prefer this to I Am What I Am, but only just about.
Breaking Ties (Flow Mix): The final track on the album is one of my favourites off the album and I actually prefer it to the original (as mentioned before). It has those awesome pads and pianos back that work well in making a really nice atmosphere. I see why they called it a "Flow Mix" as it really does flow very well as a track.
Finally word then on the album. As expected, nothing less than great from the Above & Beyond guys. Some people have criticised the album, but for me it's really nice and you can really hear the effort put into each and every production, even if I'm not keen on a couple of the tracks. Looking forward to the club mixes of some of my personal favourites from the album; On A Good Day and Come Home being two of the obvious ones as Miracle, Breaking Ties and Sirens of the Sea already have Trance mixes.
If you read my Touareg review, you may remember I introduced a scoring system. For that album I think I was a bit kind giving it 10/10 as I haven't really listened to it too much recently. For this one I'm gonna give it 8.5/10. It's nice, but there is definitely some tracks I'm not so keen on. Something I am looking forward to from Above & Beyond is Anjunabeats Volume 6 which is due out soon.  Discuss Article (2)
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