(Cooking Vinyl/Shock)

Ageing Britpop quintets’ last orders

On their ninth studio album, Saturday, Birmingham rockers Ocean Colour Scene continue to worship the ‘60s rock of their musical forebears. Here Cool Britannia – in all its impossibly hip incarnations from Carnaby Street cred and Mod to the colloquial righteousness of Britpop hyperbole – is rehashed with clinical adoration. Produced by Gavin Monaghan who has previously worked on albums for fellow Brummie’s Editors and The Twang, Saturday pays a glitzy bells ‘n’ whistles-style homage to anything vaguely countercultural and British released in the last 40 years. Opener 100 Floors Of Perception is all Small Faces / Who-esque Mod rock – right down to the propulsive percussion that drives it. The song glistens with a classicism revamped for Noughties youth in much the same way as a number of excellent Scandinavian bands like Mando Diao and The Blue Van have done with far better results. Then there’s Mrs Maylie: a stomping festival anthem that, if placed in the hands of Kaiser Chief’s Ricky Wilson, would have become an overnight indie/mainstream cross-over hit. As such, in the hands of OCS the song just feels like an ageing group’s last grasp at rock abandon, complete with a dandily chipper breakdown a la The Small Faces’ Lazy Sunday. Others like Harry Kidnap (a sweetly sung and dramatic ballad about a man right out of luck and time) and Word are lighter on the rock and merely serve as sing-along filler. Saturday was not meant to break new ground or reignite Ocean Colour Scene’s career by any means. Instead, it’s another example of a surviving Britpop band doing exactly what they want largely and entirely because they can.

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JACK LANGRIDGE

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