Review Summary: "The Ocean and the Sun" is both a great introduction to people who haven't heard of TSOAF, and album that satisfies long-time fans. TSOAF leaves behind most of the fluff that made some distaste Lover... (2006) and comes out with a collection of music that
I've been a fan of TSOAF since the beginning, and I wondered what they would put out a 3rd time around.
I wasn't disappointed at all. TSOAF seems to go back to their Tiger & the Duke roots, leaving behind a majority of the guests and stay with 4 core members. After the first couple songs, I was thinking it was themed album, with a lot of mentions of the sea, boats ect, but I was wrong. Ocean isn't a complete departure from Lover..(2006) or the Tiger & the Duke either. Ocean takes the best qualities from Tiger & The Duke, the complex drums, and excellent guitar work and combines them with creative synth work and various instrument that Lover offered.
Instead of just filling in space with noise that was apparent in some of the songs on Lover (2006), they show how confident they are as musicians, and artists, pairing interesting lyrics and poetry along with amazing instrument work.
Although, the guitar is highlighted the most throughout the album, the vocals aren't the main focus. In my opinion, that fact makes Ocean more about the well written and structured music, and less about the actual lyrics.
That may be true, but Anthony Green still shows how talented of a vocalist he is e.g "The Ocean and the Sun," and "The Heraldic.."
My only complaint about Ocean is the flow of the songs. When “Intro” opens up, it I couldn't help feel like I was listening to Lover again. Then "The Ocean and the Sun" starts and the music moves forward and follows a path, but then “Uzbekistan” takes the music in a completely different direction, then picks back up and flows all the way to the end.
That aside, TSOAF took qualities from those previous albums and moved in a different direction, and made Ocean a different album and show how comfortable and creative they can be even without 9+ members that were featured on Lover... (2006).
