Review of Everyone Into Position by Oceansize

Writing a review for an album that came out six years ago is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

Instead of listening to each track and jotting down some notes about odd time signatures, explosive guitars, tender vocals and layers upon layers upon layers, I am just sitting back with my eyes closed soaking it all in  and marvelling – for the umpteenth time – at how fantastic Oceansize are.

Were. Still can’t get used to that.

I mean, if I tell you that track four ‘Music for a Nurse’ starts with guitar using a delay effect, how can that possibly convey the utterly mesmeric quality of it and how beautiful the entire 8 minutes of the track are?

If I say that track three ‘A Homage to a Shame’ explodes from the speakers / headphones in a fury of guitars and off-kilter beats does that in any way describe how totally thrilling it is? No surprise that this track has been one of the high points of the live set ever since.

And as for the closing track, ‘Ornament/The Last Wrongs’…I’m not sure any words can do justice to its grandeur. As it turns out, it was this track that they closed with when I saw them last year, so it is this track that will be the last track I see Oceansize ever play live. Which is fitting.

Released in 2005 Everyone Into Position was Oceansize’s second album and shows the band becoming even more adventurous and ambitious. There’s also some commercial success with fourth track ‘Meredith’ being used in the TV show The O.C. and the aforementioned ‘Music for a Nurse’ used in an O2 advert for a while. I still recall the first time I realised I was hearing Oceansize on the telly. My first thought was, I hope they are getting paid enough to guarantee a third album.

Lyrically the album is as impenetrable as a lot of modern rock lyrics but that could just be me being a bit dim. And, after all, when have rock fans ever worried about lyrics. With the exception of Rush, of course.

I don’t need to detail every track. I’ve mentioned some highlights but truth be told, Everyone into Position is pure Oceansize all the way through and probably the one you’d play to a mate to try and get them into the band.