Whilst there are always going to be obvious comparisons to Alexisonfire and the likes, Essex quintet We are the Ocean have taken a step to silencing such lazy journalism with their latest effort ‘Go Now and Live’.
There was a little over twelve months between this release and 2010’s ‘Cutting our Teeth’, but musically the band have definitely grown.
Like most, I was expecting more of the same (which incidentally is no bad thing), and there are a few obvious comparisons between the two records – lead single ‘The Waiting Room’ could have easily featured on their debut and anyway you can’t expect a band to completely change direction.
The progression comes on tracks like ‘Go Now and Live’ a flawlessly executed piece of music, ‘Bro-core‘ perhaps the only way to narrate the brilliant ‘Godspeed’ and album opener ‘Trouble is temporary, time is tonic’ is wonderfully jumpy.
Perhaps the best part of this album comes from vocalist Dan Brown, although he is still sounding gloriously gruff and masculine the misplaced screams have now been replaced with a raucous sing that compliments lead vocalist Liam Cromby’s golden throat awfully well.
In fact of the 10 track here the only real down point is ‘Now & Then’ as Dan struggles to really make an impact on an already weak song.
To say that detracts away from the album overall would be untrue and ‘Go Now and Live’ is a wonderfully crafted effort that has well and truly beaten ‘the difficult second album’ curse.
For more information on We are the Ocean visit their website here