Although their success was almost completely confined to their home country with a generous handful of US alternative chart placings, it was still well received when Hershay PA indie-poppers The Ocean Blue got back together in 2010, and moreso when they released Ultramarine in 2013, their first album for 14 years. Now they’ve raided their back catalogue and their three albums on the Sire label – 1989’s self-titled debut, Cerulean (1991) and Beneath the Rhythm and Sound (1993) are being reissued on Vinyl – the second two appearing on wax for the first time.
To celebrate the band are playing a handful of shows playing their debut and Cerulean in full (no UK/European dates though, sadly) and have released ‘lost’ song from around the time of the three albums. Called City Traffic and recorded in 1994, it has this rather lovely Madchester shuffle about it, and, driven as it is by the organ, has a certain Inspiral Carpets meets REM about it. Certainly though, it shows up The Ocean Blue as master tunesmiths.
Take a listen, here
More details on the reissues, here
