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In 1989, a band from Hershey, Pennsylvania released their debut album and I could have sworn they were from England. The Ocean Blue had a sweet, British pop sound with jangly guitars, bright shiny sounds with melodic songwriting.
The release was simply entitled The Ocean Blue and it’s today’s feature on I Own That CD!
They started playing together in junior high and later, after local radio picked them up, they hooked up with The Innocence Mission, friends and mentors of the band. The influence of bands like Echo & The Bunnymen, The Smiths and even INXS.
This is largely due to what the band was listening to leading up to writing and recording the songs, but also from producers Mark Opitz (who produced early INXS and Hoodoo Gurus) and John Porter (the production genius behind The Smiths, Killing Joke and Billy Bragg).
The first track is a classic to this day, “Between Something and Nothing”, with the opening glittering guitars and a fantastic driving bass, it sets the tone for the song and the full album. The song hit No. 2 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart.
Stealing from Morrissey/Marr, straight from 1984-Smiths, “Vanity Fair”, the boys from Hershey show maturity and smartness in their crafting of music and lyrics.
My favorite track on the release is “Drifting, Falling” with its fantastic nod to Haircut 100 with the gorgeous saxophone playing throughout. Such great tortured lyrics as well from lead singer and main songwriter Dave Schelzel: “Drifting, falling on your own again - The walls of cold and grey surround - They surround”.
I’d argue that in late 80s/early 90s alternative albums, the first three songs on this release are as good as any other three-song openers.
The rest of the album is pure Brit-pop delight with songs like “Ask Me Jon”, “Myron” and my favorite song title from the album, “The Office of a Busy Man”. So jump into a time machine and dive into one of the classic alternative albums from the 80s. And if you want, you can borrow my copy.
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