Short Reviews [Glass Ocean - 2020 - "The Remnants of Losing Yourself in Someone Else"]

Glass Ocean were formed in Sydney in the summer of 2013, by vocalist Tobias Atkins and Northlane drummer Nic Petterson. Over the years they have released a few EP’s, and there have been the normal set of line-up changes, so much so that they now have bases in both Sydney and Melbourne (for the non-Aussie, the two cities are nearly 900 km apart by road). The line-up on this their debut album is Tobias (vocals) and he is now joined by Patrick Smith (drums), Eamonn Wooster (bass), Nguyen Pham (guitar) and Julian Dobric (guitar). Nic may no longer be in the band, but he co-wrote 6 of the 11 songs on offer. This is an album which revolves around the vocals, with the instrumentation always driving the ear towards the voice of Tobias, which is somehow tuneful yet also distinct and sometimes sharp, sometimes flat. They describe themselves as alt-prog, and while I am loath to give credence to yet another sub-genre I can see where they are coming from. Me, I would call this crossover with some serious pop sensibilities: there are lots of effects and resonance on the guitars, so much so that one never misses the keyboards, as to be honest there just would not be enough room within the arrangement. There are elements of Porcupine Tree, some of Muse, and if someone booked these guys to play with Outside In, I think fans of both would find they also have quite a bit in common. This is a good album, but not great, in that it all feels very much at one level which is obviously down to the production, but seeing as how this was produced, mixed and mastered by Chris Blancato (also Northlane) I presume this is exactly what the band wanted. I would prefer to hear more dynamics and variance within the overall sound, but overall, this is a modern progressive rock album which is certainly worth investigating further.