U.S. band The Ocean Blue set to release sixth album

Ultramarine—what a very apt album title for the name of the band! This is another new release in the genre that many people have long declared dead. Yes, The U.S. band The Ocean Blue is set to release their sixth full-length studio album in March 2013.

The 2010s has really been good for the New Wave genre, as we have seen new albums by classic bands like The Fixx (Beautiful Friction, 2012), Men Without Hats (Love in the Age of War, 2012), Translator (Big Green Lawn, 2012), The Wild Swans (The Coldest Winter for a Hundred Years, 2011), Dexys Midnight Runners (One Day I'm Going to Soar, 2012), Killing Joke (Absolute Dissent, 2010; and MMXII, 2012), Pet Shop Boys (Elysium, 2012), Duran Duran (All We Need Is Now, 2010), and this year The Ocean Blue (Ultramarine), David Bowie (The Next Day), Depeche Mode (Delta Machine), and OMD (English Electric).

And I'm sure I am missing some more albums released starting 2010, and some more coming in the remaining years of the current decade.

The Ocean Blue is a U.S. New Wave band formed in Pennsylvania in 1986. Its music is best defined by jangly and folky plucked guitars, hint of synth sounds and breezy saxophone melodies, trebly melodic bass lines, simple drumbeats, and smooth and silky vocals. Its current lineup consists of David Schelzel on lead vocals/guitar, Oed Ronne on keyboards/guitar/vocals, Bobby Mittan on bass guitar, and Peter Anderson on drums. Not counting the forthcoming album, Ultramarine, the band has released five studio albums: The Ocean Blue (1989), Cerulean (1991), Beneath the Rhythm and Sound (1993), See (1996), and Davy Jones' Locker (1999).

Recommended songs include “Between Something and Nothing,” “Drifting, Falling,” “Ask Me, Jon,” “Marigold,” “Ballerina Out of Control,” “Sublime,” “Don’t Believe in Everything You Hear,” “Cathedral Bells,” “Slide,” “Denmark,” and “Do You Still Remember Me?” Members of the band cite as major influences pioneering New Wave / Postpunk bands such as The Smiths, Aztec Camera, and Echo & the Bunnymen.

My first introduction to The Ocean Blue was the song "Between Something and Nothing," which I first heard on a Rock-format Philippine FM radio station back in 1991. I immediately looked for a copy of the album containing it, but it was not available locally. What I found instead was a compilation album that included the song "Ask Me, Jon." It sufficed for the meantime. Two years later, I bought my first The Ocean Blue album, Beneath the Rhythm and Sound, which I never grew tired of playing in its entirety without skipping a song even to this day. (That's how I listen to albums anyway--play them from beginning to end without pushing the fast-forward button.)

Two songs off Ultramarine, “Blow My Mind” and “A Rose Is a Rose,” prove that the sound of The Ocean Blue is as New Wave as it has always been. I now await the actual album, excited to hear the rest.

"Between Something and Nothing," the first track off The Ocean Blue's début, self-titled album

"Marigold," the third track off The Ocean Blue's second album, Cerulean

"Don't Believe in Everything You Hear," the seventh track off The Ocean Blue's third album, Beneath the Rhythm and Sound

"Slide," the eighth track off The Ocean Blue's fourth album, See

"Denmark," the third track off The Ocean Blue's fifth album, Davy Jones' Locker

"Blow My Mind," off the band's forthcoming new album, bears the familiar trademark sound of The Ocean Blue

"A Rose Is a Rose" is another song off  Ultramarine, The Ocean Blue's forthcoming, sixth full-length studio album

Final Note

The Ocean Blue is just one of the classic New Wave bands that have reinvigorated both old and new fans by releasing in the current decade new albums of new materials which bear the same familiar trademark sound of their respective predecessors.