Review Summary: Hard to give this one an exact opinion. When not being creative, likeable, and catchy, they are boring, uninventive, and just bland. Even with those good elements, it’s impossible to be really impressed.
I’m never big in the world of electronic music, (When I think electronic, I think Metro Station), and I can say I’ve never been big in the trance world, but no harm in giving it a try, right? With OceanLab…wrong, especially in this case. I can definitely say I’ve never heard a sequencer be used so much. That’s a surprise to me, because before listening to OceanLab’s Sirens of the sea, only thing I knew about trance was how to spell the word. I usually like hearing music where I can tell what the hell is going on. I checked out this rather mainstream band, formed by the popular trance group Above and Beyond (Known for doing projects with many vocalists) and singer/songwriter Justine Suissa. Thus came their debut in 2008, Sirens of the Sea, which was surprisingly a success. You’d probably think the same way if you heard their delightfully unmemorable hit “Satellite”, which apparently has a lot of DJ support and is massively popular in trance industry. After hearing that song, I thought the album was really going to blow. I wasn’t fully right, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t wrong. What I mean by that was the album has some both pretty good and pretty bad elements, but the bad ones outweight the other just enough to call this a bad album.
So the album starts off with opener Just Listen. Ok, this isn’t so bad. It includes some good catchy electro-drums in the opening and throughout the song, and a very slow piano, which blends well with it. With Justine Suissa’s soothing voice, I can’t help but just want to listen to her and her lyrics. This song definitely combines all the good things about the album. Lyrics are engaging, tunes are inventive and instrumental work is well-done and really hits the spot. They do a good job when it comes to slow songs, which is why I recommend Miracle, a personal favorite. Suissa really reaches out to an audience in this song. According to the audience, it’s possible that it has some environmental message. The tune triggers a deep emotion and the lyrical work can be compared to Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low, and that’s a good thing (It's too easy to turn a blind eye to the light, it's too easy to bow your head and pray, there are some times when you should try to find your voice, this is one voice that you must find today).
Like I said, they do a good job with SLOW songs, which means those two are some of the few highlights. The only other songs that didn’t depress me were If I could fly and Come home, which are both good examples of their creativity. I can really imagine myself hanging with friends at a club or something while listening to those. These, along with their slow songs, are the only parts where the synthesizer isn’t annoying and where I didn’t roll my eyes. I especially recommend Come Home. I like how the bass is shown more, especially with that “drowning” kind of effect at the end. It adds on well to the whole song is like orgasm to your ears. Like Owl City, these were electronic, but didn’t take it too far as annoying, unlike most of their work.
I can guarantee that you’d the same way when listening to the second song of the album: Breaking Ties. It sounds like a cliché techno song you’d hear in fight scene during a bad action film. This song is the best example of everything that’s BAD about them. The drums are annoying and do too much, and, like in I am what I am, the synthesizer doesn’t perform anything beyond 7 notes, making it almost pointless to even have one in the band. Including these, lyrical work in all their other songs is also some of the most abominable I’ve ever heard, and have absolutely no personality (“When you provide a parachute while I’m falling like a stone, I remember there is a life that I have not yet lived”). Really Suissa?! You were doing great in Miracle! What the hell happened?
While listening to this album, I had some trouble taking some notes considering that you can barely hear what’s going on in certain songs (Including song Sirens of the Sea). Being a mainstream group, I hope Oceanlab isn’t an example of every other trance group. Why? I couldn’t help but just roll my eyes during everything else. The drums do too much, the synthesizer does practically nothing, the lyrics are often boring, the vocal performance is way too standard, and the bass gets just annoying.
To make things even worse than they are, the album ends with a remix of Breaking Ties. This was because the original was so obnoxious and overproduced; they decided to make it LONGER and more mashed up! This is the one track I can guarantee you would skip.
Yes, they have elements that aren’t so bad, and If I Could Fly was likeable, but, as said before, the bad elements just outweigh the good ones. Think about it this way: Sirens of the Sea is like a bad action movie. Even with some good parts, you just can’t wait until everything is over. Altogether, Oceanlab commits what is probably the number one sin of music: They're boring. If want some REAL good electronic music, I’d stick to Metro Station, Owl City, and some Postal Service.
