We Are The Ocean - Go Now And Live

Thought the debut was good? You ain't heard nothing yet...

Posted Sunday, 24 April 2011 in

We Are The Ocean

Rating: 9

There are curveballs and then there are curveballs. We Are The Ocean fans should gear themselves up to catch this one, because ‘Go Now And Live’ comes in thick, fast and as a complete sonic surprise. Where ‘Cutting Our Teeth’ did exactly as it described, ‘Go Now And Live’ displays a level of progression since then that many bands would take the best part of a decade to achieve. The most obvious shift in focus – and it’s apparent from the opener – is that ‘dirty’ vocalist Dan Brown spends the majority of his time actually singing here. If he was an angry teenager throwing his toys out of the pram on ‘Cutting Your Teeth’, here he is a man full of confidence and level-headedness, delivering his lines in such a manner that give this album an almost Southern American feel, all the while complimenting Liam Cromby’s ‘clean’ vocals perfectly. Pete Miles (The King Blues, Canterbury) has worked wonders at honing these songs to sound as big and as powerful as they can and it’s a record that truly flows, despite its variation. The pace fluctuates from the epic and spacious (‘What It Feels Like’), to the raucous and laddish (‘Godspeed’) but at no time does ‘Go Now And Live’ feel disjointed. It’s a consistently satisfying rock experience.

Andy Ritchie

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