Ocean Grove’s ‘ODDWORLD’ Album Review – Spotlight Report
‘OG forever, forever, forever, forever…’
OCEAN GROVE have crafted, honed, and well and truly earned their reputation as one of Australia’s ‘most innovative and compelling acts of their generation’. Through years of progressive production and relentless touring, their unmatched dedication to maintaining and evolving their own vision has guaranteed the achievement of the heights of industry success.
Their first three albums receiving critical acclaim, charting consistently in the upper echelons of Australia’s music charts, from The Rhapsody Tapes, through Flip Phone Fantasy to Up In The Air Forever, OCEAN GROVE’s lead singer, DALE TANNER, cements that other accolades are the most important; their own and the fans’, in the band’s most recent release, ODDWORLD, it is realised.
ODDWORLD as a concept is not new to the ‘OG Collective’. Adorning merch and said in synonymous fashion to describe the style and setting of the live experience, it is as close to a self-titled album as OCEAN GROVE will ever make. A “manifesto of sorts … within which all OCEAN GROVE does is referenced by this point”, the fourth LP, released domestically on the band’s own similarly-titled label and, globally, through SharpTone Records is their grand opus.
“OCEAN GROVE’s signature-defining record”, OG Forever’s industrial echo bursts into ‘the rhythm, the sound’ of ‘the ODDWORLD underground’. Contrasting nu-metal blasts between TWIGGY HUNTER and TANNER, self-producer, SAM BASSAL’s drumbeat completes the trio’s Cell Division contributions, before bidding ‘Welcome to the land of honey’ – the first single release from the album, Fly Away.
‘Lucid in the flow’, Stunner is exactly that, showcasing the ‘irreplaceable’ talents of MATT KOPP (RUNNING TOUCH) and, previous vocalist, LUKE HOLMES, “who have been there throughout our history”, but for whom “the first in a really long time were intentionally brought, everyone together” for the occasion. ODDWORLD is an album curated intentionally and with greater “authenticity” than any other in the OCEAN GROVE back catalogue and it shows.
Raindrop implementing their trademarked symbiosis of heavy riffs, energetic affirmations and electronic elements, with No Offence Intended the midway, hiphop interlude leads into the modern and magnificent interpretation of nu-metal, My Disaster. Arguably the defining track to this point, there is ‘only one thing on your mind’ when the latest single, Last Dance, hits. ‘I know, I know, I know’ this bridal waltz will be eternal.
Switchblading from the tertiary track back into their high-energy, high-impact efficacy, SoWhat1999 spits: ‘If this is the consequence, the price we have to pay; I bang my head against the wall, there’s nothing left to say.’ Almost true, OCEAN GROVE needn’t offer more to make their impact known in ODDWORLD, yet, with OPT feat. NEW BABYLON & ADULT ART CLUB, there are vital passing words.
Without a trace of the cliched elements genre-aligned artists of decades gone by elicit, OCEAN GROVE executes in the way that they’ve proved only they can. With finesse, equal energy and emotion, they ‘pull me closer, cloaked in darkness’ but with ever-so-much light. This is the ‘beginning of the benchmark’, and one of 2024’s most ODDWORLD but perfect albums.
FOURTH STUDIO ALBUM ODDWORLD OUT NOW
