Saturday

Ocean Colour Scene may be comfortable within their tradition, but even they recognize the need to shake things up just a bit -- and so they do for their ninth album Saturday, hiring Editors producer Gavin Monaghan to give them a fresh coat of paint. It is not a major refurbishment, just a slight touch-up that does the group considerable good, revitalizing the band’s post-Pepper foundation. All their trademarks are in place -- in particular, there’s no getting OCS out of Traffic -- but they’re clever enough to acknowledge their consistency by having opener “100 Floors of Perception” hailing back to “Hundred Mile High City,” and spend much of Saturday hitting their British prog-folk influences a little harder, letting “Mrs. Maylie” drift into an English garden and flirting with the bombastic on “Harry Kidnap.” Ocean Colour Scene balance these precious inclinations with a ballast straight out of the Who at their prime (the closer “Rockfield” is a virtual distillation of Who’s Next), giving Saturday backbone and momentum, making this an elastic, expansive listen, a record with brighter, richer colors than its immediate predecessors. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

UKモッズ魂を継承するバンドの9枚目となる新作がリリース。ソウルフルでグルーヴィーな男気溢れるスタイルは90年代から一貫してブレることがないし、それどころか結成20年を突破してさらにパワフルになったんじゃないだろうか?　今回は楽曲そのものの出来の良さはもちろん、何か吹っ切れたようなサイモン・ファウラーのヴォーカルが素晴らしい!　初期の名盤と比較してもまったく引けを取らない傑作!
bounce (C)赤瀧洋二