Oceaneers: Track by track guide to acclaimed debut album
New Hull band Oceaneers have released their debut album online.
The group, which includes former Beautiful South drummer David Stead, has released the nine-track album Light Of The Whalebone via oceaneers1.bandcamp.com.
The album features guest vocals from ex-Primal Scream and A Certain Ratio singer Denise Johnson, and was produced by Magazine and Visage keyboardist Dave Formula, who also plays on the album.
Light Of The Whalebone has just been named Album Of The Month for July 2020 by Across The Universal Soundscape.
A video of the first single, A Brighter Day, has been released on YouTube and is featured above.
The album is described as: “… a cinematic blend of Americana, psychedelia, dark 60s European pop and ethereal folk”.
The other members of Oceaneers are: singer, guitarist and lyricist John Parkinson; bassist and lyricist Russ Litten; and guitarist Simon Bristow.
OCEANEERS: From left, Russ Litten, Simon Bristow, David Stead, John Parkinson
Here is Russ’s personal guide to each song:
Where Echoes Go To Die
“This sounded like the album opener from the very start, with the extended intro and the way it just builds and builds. We tried various arrangements, playing in different keys and tempos, but kept coming back to the original demo version. A classic case of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Charlie Jones’s backing vocals emphasised the yearning quality inherent in John’s melody, especially in the multi-tracked wall of voices at the end. Sim’s guitar combined with Dave Formula’s string arrangement sounds like African Highlife played over a Church of England choir.”
Ghostwritten
“This was written years ago in a rehearsal room that backed onto Spring Bank cemetery. The lyrics concerned automatic writing, which I was messing around with at the time. The idea that writing is a form of prayer, and if you remove the ego, the self, a higher power can speak through you. The music is very Harvest-era Neil Young. We played Charlie Heart Of Gold before we recorded and asked her to do a Lincolnshire version of Linda Ronstadt. Which she did, admirably.”
John Parkinson
Prince Of The Vagabond People
“There was a story in the local paper about a blue-haired pensioner who had appeared in court with Prince Of The Vagabond People written across the back of his jacket. So that was the title, straight away. The character in the song is not him, though. The words are about substance addiction and the idea, wrongly or rightly, that intoxication can lead to transcendental insight. At a price, obviously. John’s dad played accordion, nailed it in two takes. This is my favourite song on the album.”
Alibis
“I knew Denise Johnson through a friend. I thought she would sound ace on Alibis, so I sent her a demo and she was into it. We did it almost like a duet, and it totally changed the tone and emphasis of the lyrics. Denise was a total pleasure to work with. Utter professional, walked straight up to the microphone and delivered. You can tell she’s worked with the best in the business. She’s a genuinely lovely person as well. The day we recorded, Manchester City won about 7-0. Every time she did a vocal take, Man City scored again. Her and Dave Formula are both Blues, so it made for a happy session. Denise is a proper talent, and we’re made up that she’s on the album.”
David Stead
Song For Jean Duluoz
“This is a tribute to Jack Kerouac, who made me want to be a writer. It’s got a lot of dream imagery, which is in-keeping with all that October In The Railroad Earth stuff. Musically, it’s very simple and mantra-like. Sim’s guitar sounds like a steamboat going down the Mississippi at midnight, carried along by Dave's heartbeat drums. The whole track sounds sepia to me, like the soundtrack to a 1930s film.”
ACCLAIM: Light Of The Whalebone was named Album Of The Month
A Brighter Day
“This underwent a massive transformation. It went in sounding all hard rock, like Led Zeppelin, and got put through a psychedelic blender, emerging on the other side a much gentler creature. And all the stronger for it. Keith Angel played an Udu drum which added to the On The Road To Marrakesh vibe. We decided to make it the first release from the album because of the unashamedly positive vibe of the lyrics and the general air of defiant euphoria.”
Russ Litten
The Man Who Loved Aeroplanes
“This was written the same day as Ghostwritten. Dave’s drumming is great on this, he really got under the skin of the song and moved it forwards. Dave Formula’s raindrop synths and Hammond organ at the end give it a real early 70s feel. Lyrically, it’s a song about obsession, a twisted love song. My favourite track to play live, mainly because of the Dear Prudence-style descending bass.”
Camouflage
“One of the songs John wrote when he was living in America. The 3/4 waltz timing lent itself to a dark, European 60s kind of sound. There’s also a nod to Pink Floyd in there. Denise was only supposed to do the vocals on Alibis, but she came up with the vocal hook for this and laid it down for us in about ten minutes flat. So that became both the intro and outro. The ending goes on and on and gets gradually more unhinged. It reminds me of the end of One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong by Leonard Cohen.”
Simon Bristow
The Very Bones Of You
“This has been compared to Nick Cave, which I can totally see. Probably the most radical reinvention on the album. We stripped almost all of the guitars out and Dave Formula laid down a Tom Waits-style late-night, bar-room blues piano that gave John’s lyrics an even more brooding and sinister edge. The ending was Dave Formula’s idea - he told us to just keep hammering away until our fingers were dropping off, and then we built the entire joyful cacophony up to a musical climax of pounding piano, wailing guitar, speaking in tongues vocals and Disneyland strings, if Disneyland was the waiting room for hell.”