The Ocean Blue arrived as the 1980s drew to a close, and their debut record on the famed Sire Records label in 1989 seemed to summarize the best of the passing musical decade. With the release of The Ocean Blue, the band of four teenagers from Hershey, Pennsylvania quickly achieved widespread acclaim and radio & MTV airplay with top 10 Modern Rock/College Radio hits like Between Something and Nothing, Drifting, Falling, and Vanity Fair. They followed their debut with the dreamy and atmospheric Cerulean, which includes perhaps their most beloved song, Ballerina Out of Control. Their third Sire release and highest charting pop album Beneath the Rhythm and Sound featured the single Sublime, with a video of the band in the sublime landscape of Iceland. The band’s fourth major label album on Mercury/PolyGram, See The Ocean Blue, delved into wider 60s and 70s stylings but with the band’s 80s DNA peeking through.
The band left the majors in the late 90s and released several independent records in the ensuing decade, including 2000’s Davy Jones Locker and 2004’s Waterworks. In 2013, after a long hiatus and much anticipation, the band released their first full length record in a decade, Ultramarine, on Korda Records, a label cooperative the band helped launch that same year. The record was a welcome return for both long-time fans of the band and a younger generation of like-minded fans, and it garnered widespread praise as one of their very best albums. In 2015, the band worked with Sire Records to reissue their first three albums on vinyl, and did wider touring in North America and in South America, where some of their most passionate fans reside.
In 2019, the band returned with the beautifully powerful Kings and Queens / Knaves and Thieves, and has continued to tour for this release and the newly re-issued vinyl of See The Ocean Blue (2022).
Feature and Interview on NPR Weekend Edition
“Kings and Queens” Video Premieres in Billboard
“All The Way Blue” Video Premieres in Paste
“It Takes So Long” Premieres on KCRW
More Features and Interviews in Tape Op, Modern Drummer, Rhino Records Podcast, and KEXP
“Kings And Queens / Knaves And Thieves… is the latest entry into what appears to be their next trilogy of perfect albums — their dark and epic ”The Empire Strikes Back” if you will. Beneath the shimmering guitars, earworm hooks, and David Schelzel’s dreamy, lovelorn, and lamentful croon, are beautiful stories, abstract visions, easter eggs to previous albums, and eloquent social commentary.”
“The Ocean Blue’s seventh album Kings And Queens / Knaves And Thieves…efficiently co-opts the lush and airy artiness of Britpop’s more lavish leanings without sounding dated or redundant. Like much of the rest of the album, the title track “Kings And Queens” demonstrates the Ocean Blue’s continued proficiency as expert assimilators of all things strummy, Anglophilic and slightly world-weary. ”
“[H]ere they sound like masters of the genre. Cuts like “Love Doesn’t Make It Easy on Us” and “Therein Lies the Problem with My Life,” are immediately memorable anthems that make the whole notion of emulating your idols while somehow retaining your own style, sound deceptively easy… However, it’s the title track, with its shimmering synth-and-guitar backdrop and poetic ruminations on the fragility of life and the state of the world, that best represent how The Ocean Blue have updated their early teenage pop ennui, ably shifting forward for fans who’ve grown into middle age right along with them.”
“‘All The Way Blue’ is a continuation of the yearning nostalgic pop that makes them so instantaneously beatific. With sublime piano, hyper-melodic guitars, neon synths, melodramatic lyrics and understated vocals, The Ocean Blue achieve emotional potency without any bombast.”
“All The Way Blue”
“It Takes So Long”
“When indie pop darlings The Ocean Blue returned in 2013 with their excellent album Ultramarine it heralded a second chapter for the band. We’re happy to report that their new album finds them crafting the same brand of delicately nuanced indie pop you’ve come to love from them, featuring crystalline guitars, glimmering piano lines, and David Schelzel’s yearning vocals.”
“It’s fresh but also sounds like beautiful, vintage Ocean Blue.”
“Ultramarine isn’t just a return to form; it’s one of The Ocean Blue’s best albums.”
“The 12 songs on Ultramarine recall the sincere clarity of the band’s self-titled 1989 debut and 1991’s Cerulean with songs that soar with grace, blend cascading guitars and rich keyboards with lyrics that manage to evoke sentimentality, optimism and an appropriate romantic longing without being cloying or grating.”
“The band’s signature sound — jazzy, atmospheric pop — has aged nicely, as has frontman David Schelzel’s voice….The record is a nice return and the band’s signature, dreamy/melodic sound still plays well in 2013.”
“Ultramarine (four and 1/2 stars out of five) is a true return to form for fans of their two biggest albums while providing a perfect entry point for fans of heartbreakingly gorgeous, shimmering guitar pop…”