| From the ominous opening powerchords of "Hundred Mile High City" to the mournful, exhausted conclusion of "It's A Beautiful Thing", OCS's third album is not so much an album but a journey, complete with its share of emotional peaks and troughs. Frontman Simon Fowler's elliptical style means that you don't always know exactly what's going on, but tracks like "Debris Road" and "Get Blown Away" resonate on a deeper level, deploying evocative nostalgic imagery to marvellous effect. Musically, Marchin' Already shows OCS drawing on much wider influences they're usually given credit for: the band's mod influences are well-documented, but "Foxy's Folk-Faced" and "Half A Dream Away" respectively repay some dept to Fairport Convention and The Specials (whose trombonist Rico plays on the latter). That it never manages to sound purely like a rehash of pop's past glories must, in part, go to some truly imaginative work by producer Brendan Lynch, who remains the only man in Britain capable of making a guitar sounding like an aeroplane taking off. As Fowler would say, it's a beautiful thing. --Peter Paphides |
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