Ocean Colour Scene

Ocean Colour Scene - Songs From The Front Row

Don't get me wrong, OCS are a band in a great tradition. A tradition of solid musicianship, solid songwriting, and albums where all the tracks are nicely mixed together.

However, they also suffer from a fanatical devotion to Paul Weller, a few too many samey tunes, and a habit of doing dross ballads like "Beautiful Thing". I think the phrase "erggh" describes it pretty effectively.

Mind you, their tracks from their "Moseley Shoals" period still stand up well, as does the racey "Hundred Mile High City". These make it in fact a worthy purchase should you not own them all anyway.

As for the rest, "Profit In Peace" is possibly the worst attempt at a protest song ever written. "Travellers Tune" and "Better Day", both album-mates of "Hundred Mile.." stand up OK, but are not really staggeringly good songs.

In conclusion, if you like Ocean Colour Scene, and own none of their records, buy it, as it contains less filler than any of their atrocious albums. If you own any albums, think carefully.

Oh, and bonus points for not putting any songs from your first album on (strong candidate for worst album ever). Mind you, that would be taking the mickey!



1. Riverboat Song
2. Day We Caught The Train
3. One For The Road
4. Circle
5. You've Got It Bad
6. Hundred Mile High City
7. Better Day
8. Traveller's Tune
9. Get Blown Away
10. It's A Beautiful Thing
11. Profit In Peace
12. So Low
13. July
14. Up On The Downside
15. Mechanical Wonder
16. Huckleberry Grove
17. Robin Hood
18. Crazy Lowdown Ways


Songs From The Front Row Part 01
Songs From The Front Row Part 02