Charting The Oceans are from Cleethorpes. Seeing as my exposure to bands from there has been limited to school kids struggling with Green Day covers, I was intrigued to see if anything a little more substantial existed in the town.
Presenting a demo which I can best describe as upbeat, poppy indie-rock, CTO draw on the usual list of influences for bands of their ilk, and some that I can’t quite place, and they’re rather keen on ensuring that the guitars retain a ‘washed out’ sort of sound. Vocals vary wildly; on opening track ‘Meat feast at horny Hank’s’ they’re just plain bad, but by the time we’ve reached ‘Jam’s song’ they’re rather good. Quite why they’re of such varying quality I really don’t know, but a more consistent approach to them is definitely required in their next release.
Guitar work is pleasant throughout. Not ‘good’, but ‘pleasant’; enjoyable but without doing anything particularly noteworthy. And that’s my major criticism of this CD: it takes you on a journey without actually visiting anywhere. Whilst that will make a varying degree of sense depending upon how your ears approach this CD, I couldn’t remember how any of the songs really went after I’d finished listening.
Certainly a decent effort, with the odd bit of promise, but there needs to be just a bit more going on.
www.myspace.com/chartingtheoceans
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