Oceansize - SelfPreserved While theBodies Float Up

Wed 8th Sep, 2010 in Music Reviews

Manchester five-piece Oceansize have finally released their long-awaited forth studio album, the curiously-titled Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up.

Following the release of the Frames album, the band released a live DVD/CD boxset as well as the EP Home and Minor and even managed to tour Australia for the first time last year with Aussie heroes Cog. So while the band have been busy with other releases and touring (with legends Faith No More and Porcupine Tree no less), this album’s release is probably the most anticipated of all their events over the last three years, and Self Preserved… is well worth the wait.

In a contrast to the ebb and flow of previous releases, Oceansize present us with two contrasting poles on their latest release: the first is a faster, syncopated, blitzkrieg-like theme, while the second is vulnerable, melodic, slow, and fragile. In true Oceansize fashion, they have thrown as many ideas and soundscapes at us as they could. However, this is the first time that these styles have contrasted each other so blatantly. As a result, the album takes a little getting used to. The record doesn’t quite flow from track to track like the first three efforts. Because the two styles are so different, mood may dictate which half of the album you listen to. Unlike Frames, it’s not an album that appears to take you on a journey, but rather express itself the nth degree: from brutality to sensitivity.

The album opens with Part Cardiac, a slow, down-tuned, heavy-gauged string affair that sloshes and sludges its way around for four minutes. It is a different track for the band and one that might alienate some listeners given its more risky nature. The band then launch into first single SuperImposer and Build Us A Rocket Then, You Rocket-Building Cunt. Both songs are an explosion of pace and complexity as the band throws us an assortment of ideas and time signatures.

You need to put aside your knowledge of the band and your expectations and just allow Oceansize to hit you with the wider-range of musical ideas they hurl at you. While resembling some early stuff, the shortness of the heavier songs makes it feel very jagged and brash, but the more you listen to it, the more this new approach grows on you.

The rest of the album however is a very different affair. After Rocket…, the band gives us perhaps their magnum opus: the aptly-titled Oscar Acceptance Speech. The track is an amazing composition; a soft, rolling, piano-driven track that ends with a stunning string section that lasts for close to four minutes, giving the album and track a soundtrack feel. Not to be outdone, the vulnerable and intimate Pine is one of their best tracks I’ve heard, and is stunning. Mike Vennart’s vocals on this are fragile and soft, making it a very personal affair. Grab a bottle of merlot for this one.

Self Preserved also offers us some darker, brooding tracks like Ransoms and SuperImposter, with the latter reminiscent of early work like Saturday Morning Breakfast Show. As a result, these tracks offer a more experimental side to the band, as they develop different sonic textures while evolving a sound they have been developing for years.

All in all, Self Preserved… is an interesting album, both complex and sonically abusive at times before becoming intimate, soft and tear-jerking. It is an album that has needed quite a few listens to fully grasp some of the musical concepts. However, this is not to suggest that fans of the old material will not warm to this effort; the album is still very much Oceansize, and while their presentation is different and some new ideas have crept into the writing, this is still very much a ‘Size album and one that threatens to surpass the previous three releases.