Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Ocean Colour Scene reinvented themselves as trad rock journeymen with their second album, Moseley Shoals, a record indebted to late-'60s blues-rock, mod pop, psychedelia, and prog rock. Surprisingly, the album became a blockbuster in the U.K., so it isn't entirely surprising that its successor, Marchin' Already, is essentially Moseley Shoals, Pt. 2 with a bigger budget. Despite a few production flourishes — heavily panned, distorted psychedelic guitars, trombone solos, and two P.P. Arnold backing vocals — Ocean Colour Scene doesn't sound at all different on Marchin' Already, and their songwriting shows no noticeable improvement. But the album isn't a retreat; it's a continuation of everything that made Moseley Shoals such an entertaining record, and it's nearly as good as its predecessor. Marchin' Already is equally balanced between soulful stompers ("Travellers Tune"), rockers ("Hundred Mile High City"), and prog-inflected ballads ("Better Day," "Besides Yourself"), all delivered with almost too much passion. But the key to Ocean Colour Scene is that they are fervently committed to trad rock, which means they pour themselves into predictable songs that turn out to be quite satisfying, even if they are guilty pleasures. And if that's the case, Marchin' Already is a great guilty pleasure.

Peter Paphides, Amazon.co.uk

From the ominous opening powerchords of "Hundred Mile High City" to the mournful, exhausted conclusion of "It's A Beautiful Thing", OCS's third album is not so much an album but a journey, complete with its share of emotional peaks and troughs. Frontman Simon Fowler's elliptical style means that you don't always know exactly what's going on, but tracks like "Debris Road" and "Get Blown Away" resonate on a deeper level, deploying evocative nostalgic imagery to marvellous effect. Musically, Marchin' Already shows OCS drawing on much wider influences they're usually given credit for: the band's mod influences are well-documented, but "Foxy's Folk-Faced" and "Half A Dream Away" respectively repay some dept to Fairport Convention and The Specials (whose trombonist Rico plays on the latter). That it never manages to sound purely like a rehash of pop's past glories must, in part, go to some truly imaginative work by producer Brendan Lynch, who remains the only man in Britain capable of making a guitar sounding like an aeroplane taking off. As Fowler would say, it's a beautiful thing.

© Frank Steven Groen