Ocean Alley - Chiaroscuro (2018) REVIEW

By Patrick Baker

Genre/s - Reggae Rock
Similar Artists - Sticky Fingers, Lime Cordiale, Skeggs
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OVERALL RATING
4/10






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Formed in 2011, the widely popular 6-piece, independent, Australian reggae-rock heavyweights hailing from the beautiful Northern Beaches of Sydney, Ocean Alley (made up of Baden Donegal, Angus Goodwin, Lachlan Galbraith, Mitch Galbraith, Nic Blom and Tom O'Brien) released their third studio album, Chiaroscuro (a visual arts term meaning the effect of contrast between light and dark) in 2018. It is a basic, easily accessible, psych-infused reggae rock album, and their most critically acclaimed and commercially successful to date. Chiaroscuro reached #15 on the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Albums Chart, #2 on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2018, and the tracks, 'Confidence', 'Knees' and 'Happy Sad' all placed #1,10 and 100 respectively on the Triple J Hottest 100 of 2018. I have decided to review this album as the release date (June 19th) of their next album, Lonely Diamond approaches.

My first proper listening of Chiaroscuro was in mid-2018, and was introduced to me by an ex-girlfriend (I never followed the band closely). She was completely fanatic about them.  I could totally understand the appeal at the time, and I would listen to the psyched-out and dreamy sounding reggae-rock tracks when I felt like kicking back and relaxing. I even attended one of their shows at the smaller Roundhouse in the UNSW campus (possibly the worst show I have been to but was mainly due to the audience and atmosphere). However, the more I listened to Chiaroscuro, the more I realised just how lacklustre and bland the album truly was, and found it hard to listen again. And unfortunately the same goes for the majority of the Ocean Alley discography in my opinion - catchy, yet bland, unoriginal sounding tracks with a strong emphasis on repetition. Fortunately for Ocean Alley, catchy music sells incredibly well and through this they have managed to create a big following for themselves in the Australian music scene, and probably have made some serious cash from their body of work (can't knock the hustle).

Ocean Alley's songwriting on Chiaroscuro was a huge down-grade from previous albums, I suspect as a consequence of the bands drive to appeal a much wider audience, and be radio-friendly as a way of making more money (still can't knock the hustle). The songwriting had gone from decent in albums such as 2015's, In Purple (my personal favourite of theirs), to flat-out lazy and underwhelming lyrics in the majority of tracks in Chiaroscuro, particularly in 'Happy Sad', 'Confidence', 'Rage', 'Bones' and 'Flowers and Booze'. It's not even that I dislike lazy, easy-going lyrics at all, it's more that they claimed in an interview that, "It seems like the songwriting has matured definitely. It's a bit of a cliche, but it has". After I read that quote, I seriously thought that these guys were a bit deluded in their song-writing abilities, as the lyrics in this album were anything but mature. I had their most popular song from the album, Confidence, stuck in my head for days after my initial listen, which like all songs that earworm you, I found irritating and tiresome. The constant need to dramatically sing the words, ♩...It's all about confidence baby...♩ while staring into the mirror every time you go to the bathroom was like a compulsion. Despite the catchy qualities of Chiaroscuro, I really did not enjoy most of the album.

The opening track 'Corduroy' introduces us to the album with an isolated, phased-out, slightly delayed electric guitar, which quickly bursts out into a full blown array of psychedelic sounding guitars and drums. Soon after, the singer of the band, Baden Donegals vocals hit accompanied by a smooth piano melody and the sprawling instrumental. Despite my dislike for the album, Donegal has an incredible voice that is really suited to the genre, and was for sure one of few highlights on the album. The 'Comedown' has a simple, yet effective instrumental and attempts of being an embodiment of the depressing, sluggish feeling associated with a big night out, but tries to take itself too seriously for what the subject matter is, which is a trivial part of life at best. 'The Good Times Are Killing Me' by Modest Mouse is a much better hangover-related song in my opinion.  The rest of the album is basically same-sounding tracks that play one after the other, which makes it very hard to stay interested and invested for me personally, and are not worth discussing. Some notable high points in the track-list would be the tracks 'Corduroy', 'Knees' and 'She's Always Right', but are still not great tracks compared to others in the genre. 

Overall, Chiaroscuro was a total disappointment for me, with its’ inability to contribute or expand the genre’s sound, let alone Ocean Alley's own body of work. The song-writing wasn't terrible, but implies that the lyrics are 'deep', when they're really mostly superficial. However, some tracks on the album make for some OK party music. I can't say I will be listening to this album again, but if you're after a repetitive, easy listening but ultimately forgettable album, Chiaroscuro may be worth a spin.

Favourite Tracks 
- Corduroy
- Knees
- She's Always Right


Least Favourite Tracks
- Happy Sad
- Confidence
- Rage
- Overgrown
- Bones
- Man You Were Looking For


Related Videos from Ocean Alley

OCEAN ALLEY - CONFIDENCE (Official Video)

OCEAN ALLEY - HAPPY SAD (Official Video)

OCEAN ALLEY - KNEES

OCEAN ALLEY - THE COMEDOWN (Official Video)