Track Listing

1. Riverboat song
2. Day we caught the train
3. Circle
4. Lining your pockets
5. Fleeting mind
6. 40 past midnight
7. One for the road
8. It's my shadow
9. Policeman and pirates
10. Downstream
11. You've got it bad
12. Get away

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4779 in Music
• Released on: 1996-04-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 55 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
"I remember", said OCS singer Simon Fowler in a 1996 interview, "when we were dropped, our old label boss said there were no potential singles on the demo tape we'd just given him. One of the songs on that tape was "The Day We Caught The Train"."

You can't blame the boy for gloating. When the Birmingham quartet recorded Moseley Shoals in their tiny home studio, there wasn't a label that wanted them. Perhaps that's why Fowler--one of Britain's most under-recognised lyricists --sounds like a man with nothing to lose on "The Circle" and the aching "It's My Shadow". R&B driven hits such as "The Riverboat Song" and "You've Got It Bad" paint a slightly misleading picture. In fact, there's a pastoral poignancy to much of Moseley Shoals which owes more to, say, Fairport Convention than mentor/mate Paul Weller. --Peter Paphides

CD Description
Riding on a crest of late 60s retro rock, this band have received a disproportionate dollop of criticism since their considerable success with this, their second album. Revealing influences ranging from 10CC and the Idle Race ('The Day We Caught The Train') to the Love Affair and Beatles ('The Circle'), the derivative nature of this record is nevertheless highly palatable. Even a Randy Newman soundalike rears up in 'Lining Your Pockets' and Eric Clapton's Disraeli Gears wah-wah guitar can also be found liberally sprinkled throughout ('The Riverboat Song', 'Policeman & Pirates'). A necessary album for anyone with a magpie complex.

Customer Reviews

A great album
For people keen to see what guitar music sounded like in the late 90's, You can do a lot worse than buy Moseley Shoals. The album is packed with great tracks, The singalong 'The day we caught the train', the catchy 'The riverboat song' and 'the circle'(Supposedly based on the number 11 bus route around Birmingham) are probably the albums highlights, 'You've got it bad' and 'get away' are great album finishers.
But more than just an great album, Ocean Colour Scene were great for Birmingham. Oasis were Manchester's, Blur very London and Even Cast had that Liverpool sound, Birmingham had nothing until these mods came along. It was great to be in a club and bump into the band, to be 17 and have a nationwide band there was great. Getting the drummers autograph in a Birmingham Homebase kind of summed them up.
OCS have gone on to produce some poor stuff since then, Marchin' already was a sad let down, but for that moment, 90's defining albums, Moseley shoals is there.

mosley shoals
from the opening riff of the river boat song to the brilliance of fleeting mind mosely shoals is british music at its best,having managed to get my hands on the album in 96 on the day of it's release on tape there hasn't been a week from then on that i haven't played it, a few years ago i upgraded to the cd version only because i'd worn the tape out that much the lead guitar wasn't audible,need i say anymore? well dam right i do! over the years ocs have suffered total critical abuse because they dont play the media game like the likes of oasis,coldplay,etc, they realease the music that they want to realease,they are still one of the best kept secrets in the history of british music,the band contains one of the best singer song writers around, the album is a must for anyone who has any musical taste.

Exhilarating yet beautiful, exciting yet delicate...awesome
This album will always remind me of happy times, as i daresay it does its creators, with a distinct sense of nostalgia running throughout it. I really can't describe just how much i love this album, it seems able to cover the whole spectrum of rock within the OCS style (ie. jumps from the riffing power of the 'riverboat song', to the emotive beauty and tragedy of 'one for the road', to the sing along catchiness of 'the day we caught the train' to the understated power of 'its my shadow', the list goes on), but maintains it's flow, and overall 'feel' - a remarkable achievement. Whatever your mood, this album is perfect, and demonstrates why OCS are so often described as one of the most under rated bands ever. And why they're my favourite ever. Breathtaking.