Deep Dark Ocean is my favorite Oysterband CD, and we have them all! It's their most melodic album to date, and has beautifully written and poetic lyrics. Less overtly political than most of their albums, the songs on Deep Dark Ocean are more about personal journeys in time and place, with something of a nostalgic bent; not a sentimental longing for an impossible past, but a recognition of how far life's journey can take one, and that things do get left behind. In all the songs here the lyrics are crafted well enough that their crafting becomes invisible; the writers worked very hard to make the songs spare, direct and honest.

The first song, "Sail On By," is a fair representation of the album as a whole (as much as any one song can ever summarize an album!). Its melody and counter-melody in the guitar complement the words about love changing and time passing ... or maybe they simply put into words the musings we can have when enjoying the present and looking back to the past. I'd call it bittersweet, except that word can indicate a level of contrived sentiment that is absent here.

"No Reason To Cry" and "Only When You Call" are love songs in their ways. The ways we learn how to live in youth often do not help us live the way we desire in adulthood, and this can make love fail. It helps, sometimes, to see the other's heart.

"Native Son" (reprised in Gaelic -- I think -- in a surprise track at the very end) and "Not Like Jordan" describe different aspects of leaving one's home behind. "Native Son" is as close to an explicitly political song as is on this album, and "Not Like Jordan" describes a return to one's hometown.

"North Star," a beautiful instrumental, leads into two of my favorite tracks, "Milford Haven" in which the woman described "... stepped out into the sunrise / and she found that she could fly" and the things that limited her life "fell away like melting snow." In "The Story" the singer encounters a storm on a fishing boat -- but that sounds so mundane, and the song itself is magical. "Who writes the story? I don't know any more -- maybe nothing's what it seems..." Any description of what it's about misses the magic of this song and the power of the sea to affect us for good and ill.

The three other songs are all good, too, but aren't as appealing to me as the ones above. The "Little Brother" is physically grown but apparently mentally handicapped; "Be My Luck" is a pick-up song, rather like a pick-up line but more interesting; and "Drunkard's Waltz," the only cover on the album, is similar but more philosophical.

The liner notes contain the full lyrics of the songs, which I appreciate. Players and instruments are listed, but not song by song. I would have liked a bit of story about each of the songs, as they did for "Drunkard's Waltz," but there's something to be said for encountering each song on its own, with no prior context.

All in all, an excellent album! Recommended for Oysterband fans in general, and also for people who may not be but who like strong melodies and lyrics with a drum and bass line, in the best folk-rock tradition.

[ by Amanda Fisher ]