WHAT A PITY that Britpop, the most regrettable music genre outside of Autotuned r&b bollocks, appears to be undergoing something of a revival, and Aussie group Deep Sea Arcade, it seems, want to have standing room on the bandwagon.
Released oโer the sea way back in March, weโre finally seeing Outlands here on the back of its success in England. Yes, it seems you can sell coals to Newcastle as long as theyโre very old coals.
Having started off on a rather negative note, however, I do need to point out that Deep Sea Arcade (poor choice of name, I reckon) also resonate with some of the echoing grace of โ80s 4AD acts, and catch more than a few traces of โ60s power pop and psychedelia.
The title track, for instance, conjures up the Moody Blues, and โSeen No Rightโ is like a commercial take on what the alt-rock press call hypnagogic pop, a kind of warped, through-the-looking-glass, half-affectionately and half-darkly, appreciation of the more musty corners of pop culture. You know, early BBC-TV vs. psychedelic pop as imagined by a couple of Australian Gen-Y specimens.
Outlands has charm, but in sporadic bursts. For every rich vein of pop culture explored, they fall back into a jangly, thin-voiced Britpop hell, which makes it a pleasure/pain scenario for this reviewer. In balance, itโs just okay, with a few real bright spots. Iโm just glad theyโre more Charlatans than Oasis. GARY STEEL
Sound = 3/5
Music = 3/5
Deep Sea Arcade – Outlands
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