After their latest departure from Equal Vision Records, Being As An Ocean bring us Waiting For Morning To Come, the album we waited so long for. They’re clearly embracing more of a pop element with the added electronics, but to me it’s a refreshing departure from the Dear G-D days. Which is tough to say because I love what Dear G-D had to say and the sound they also achieved on that release. Still, Waiting For Morning To Come still has hints of their old sound but with a lot of pop elements added which only strengthen it.
To start off, there is a lot of songs that are brief which will only make sense if you listen to the album all the way through. With that being said, Black & Blue is the first song with full band and set the tone for the project. The track before, pink & red, is a solo piano which by itself is already a beautiful enough way to fade into the 2nd track. B&B gives us the classic Joel yelling we all love but also containing clean vocals which are almost soulful. This song, in particular, could probably make it into the radio realm if it was possible. Maybe even get people to be aware of the scene they came from.
Black & Blue
Glow is also worth mentioning for its catchy vocal melody that is going to be stuck in my head all night. Again, we get more of the classic Joel doing some screaming and throwing small hints of spoken word in there. After that, the next song that was notable for me was one of their singles, OK, which again has some of the best vocals I’ve heard in awhile. That coming from Michael McGough, who is probably one of the most underrated vocalists I know.
The next song I fell in love with was Thorns, which might actually be my favorite song on the entire album. It incorporates a lot of synth sounds while still managing to stay on the heavier side with the droning bass. At times it seems more like a pop song but then the screaming adds a different element that pop hasn’t learned to embrace yet. Is it crazy to say that Being As An Ocean couldn’t potentially get radio play on a major pop station? Who knows.
Thorns
Other notable mentions for me were Blacktop and Waiting For Morning To Come. Blacktop for its unique take on this sound. Particularly with the guitar which is different from some of the other songs on the album. Waiting For Morning To Come is even different, practically not even sounding like a BAAO song at first. Plus who doesn’t love a random sax solo at the end of the song?
Spotify: spoti.fi/2weVMIM
Apple Music: apple.co/2xjc1tv
Google Play: bit.ly/2xj1gY3
