Scene not herd

I have decided to take this occasion to commit to print something you rarely see in a music article: positive words about the band Ocean Colour Scene. I'm not actually sure of your regular columnist Brian Boyd's position on them, but if he follows the lead of 99.9 per cent of all other music journalists he will regard them as the Devil's Little Helpers, Satan's Spawn and the Horsemen of some musical Apocalypse.

They have earned this reputation by being "a bit retro". That is to say their music not only takes inspiration from past artists but at times also appears to mimic those artists and indeed copy from them shamelessly. They are failing to "find their own voice" critics will say. It becomes confusing for the public, however, when the same critics then award Gomez the Mercury Music Prize, citing the breadth of their influences and their bravery in drawing, so obviously, from our rich musical heritage. So why slam Ocean Colour Scene for the same thing?

You can't help but suspect that the reason is their huge success. Their 1996 album, Moseley Shoals, has now sold over 1.2 million copies. Its follow-up, Marchin' Already, is triple platinum, and their 1998 UK tour was the biggest-selling Arena Tour of any band in the UK that year. The Riverboat Song is the TFI Friday theme tune, a Chris Evans favourite, and if there is a piece of music somewhere from which it has "stolen shamelessly", I have yet to hear it.

Their new album, One From The Modern, is the first they've written since success beckoned, although the video for the first single, Profit in Peace, looks set to delight those who wish to spray-paint "Ocean Colour Scene are retro" on toilet walls. Watching it you can't help but suspect that its anti-war imagery is directed at one war in particular, and that the war in question ended 25 years ago in victory for North Vietnam. Strange videos aside, the album is, at the very least, a great collection of songs.

Recorded once again at the band's studio in Birmingham and with Brendan Lynch again on production, it doesn't mark any radical change of direction. However, the fact that these songs were written after the band's darker days is worth noting. It isn't that long ago that their singer and main songwriter Simon Fowler was selling his record collection, while guitarist Steve Craddock's father was remortgaging his house just to keep the band afloat.

Their world now is very different. The pressure is off, presenting the band with an ideal opportunity to reassess and make an album closer to whatever it was that drove them to pick up instruments in the first place.

To quote Simon: "I think of all the records we've done, this is the one that reminds me most of what I've always wanted to do. The songs are like the ones I learnt when I was nine, like all-American folk songs. They're also like the songs I learnt through singing with my Dad, from the golden age of song writing, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, all that kind of melody thing. It's the best expression of where we are."

And where they are, as songwriters, is a very interesting place. Ocean Colour Scene are based on the song-writing partnership of Simon and his guitarist Steve, a partnership that like so many others doesn't look like it should work.

"I put on a tape machine and sing for hours. I don't write it down. By the time you'd write down one line you'd miss three others. That's how I got The Circle. It's the old Beatnik thing of automatic writing. Then Steve comes in. He has a very intense relationship with lyrics. He tells me what they could be about. People think he's just a guitarist, but he's a songwriter. He thinks like a songwriter."

The retro element comes from Steve's passionate love of northern soul music and bands like The Faces, coupled with the production of Lynch who made his name working with Paul Weller and Primal Scream (retro rock meets Hip Hop). It may remind you of older bands but it never takes from the strength of these songs.

How One From The Modern fares against their other albums remains to be seen. However, for now, all that I'm sure of is that songs on it like So Low, No One At All and Emily Driver seem suitable candidates for repeated heavy air play, and in this business that's all I can ask for.

Some recommended albums and singles:

Shack's HMS Fable, a possible album of the year combining the soulfulness of Urban Hymns with the pop brilliance of The La's . . . Funkstar's deluxe remix of Bob Marley's Sun is Shining, a lot more exciting than the legend Part II CD set . . . The Frames' album, Dance the Devil, vastly superior to anything they've done to date.

Tom Dunne presents the radio show Pet Sounds on Today FM and writes and presents the new series of Planet Rock Profiles which starts on Network 2 next Wednesday. He is also lead singer and songwriter with Something Happens