Review Summary: My stomach rocks with waves, a smile is tossed on my face
Astronataulis is an interesting artist. You can tell this straight from the get go by listening to a few songs of his; His mix of Hip Hop and Indie Rock, intertwined with one-another flawlessly, often leaving it to interpretation which genre will outweigh the other on each song. Then there is his style of storytelling in his lyrics, carrying the listener through each song. Often, his lyrics aim to motivate and they are often successful in that aim. If ‘This Is Our Science’ is to do with motivating us through every triviality of life from start to finish, then Mighty Oceans is a quick getaway, where there Is no worry in your mind but “What’s next to do?”.
Well, what is next? I said previously that Astronautalis is notable for his mixture of Hip-Hop and Indie, this is heavily prominent on his prior (and post) releases. However, on Mighty Oceans, you can’t go into it anticipating a significant amount of ‘bars’ or faster songs – instead, Andy opts for the more melodic style of indie hip-hop. He keeps an atmosphere unlike many others; the album remains a calm easy listen, without the need for any real sing-along songs that you might expect from him. This is the sort of album you’re going to have to actually listen to. Every detail is manufactured in such a way where, with every listen a new beauty is found (the slight rustle at the end of ‘Barrel Jumping’, the undistinguishable muttering in ‘My Dinner With Andy’).
As stated before, this album really is a fantastic show of lyricism. Every song seems to piece up perfectly, with the lyrics matching the generally mellow sound of the songs. A prime example of Andys style of storytelling is found on the song ‘Skeleton’. Lyrically this song is the best on the album. It details the clichés of love and growing older, but it is a genuinely captivating tale of those two exact things sounding generally beautiful (“She'll teach him how to dance and dance her fingertips across her lips”). To be honest to the music, I’d argue that captivating is the best way to describe this album.
At no point does the music begin to feel repetitive or boring throughout the entire 50+ minutes, despite the consistently chilled out sound. With every song, there is a new feeling. With every listen, there is a new highlight. Mighty Oceans is an experience, more than anything else. On first listen it was an average indie hip-hop album with only a few notable songs, but as time has passed, as situations have changed, it has slowly etched its way into my collection and into my favourites. It’s one of those rare albums that becomes part of your life as appose to just being on your ITunes library.
