Product 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.

Track Listing

1. The Riverboat Song
2. The Day We Caught The Train
3. The Circle
4. Lining Your Pockets
5. Fleeting Mind
6. 40 Past Midnight
7. One For The Road
8. It's My Shadow
9. Policemen & Pirates
10. The Downstream
11. You've Got It Bad
12. Get Away

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7294 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

Customer Reviews

Simply great pop music.
I hold this album close to my heart. It dosen't get a listen often but It holds a lot of memories for me from when I was but a youth. I used to listen to three albums religiously around 1997 and this was one of them. It is, in my opinion one of the best popular British albums of the nineties and certainly my favourite which gained mainstrem success.

The thing about this album that sets it apart from it's contemporaries at the time (Oasis, Blur, Stereophonics, Reef etc.) is the arrangements and musicianship. Whilst Oasis and Blur were duking it out and producing very bland stuff OCS were just doing what they do. I can imagine Oasis and Blur in massive arenas and sold out world tours but when I listen to OCS I picture them in a smoky pub with ambient lighting and no sound at all apart from the band with a captive audience. I think that's why I like them so much, the vibe that they create isn't tough or querky it's just them playing & loving it. They portray no pretense. It also helps that the tunes are absolute classics!

Who can forget The Riverboat Song, The Day We Caught The Train & Circle? Not to mention the rest. This is one of those albums that never lags towards the end or has a weak middle, it's all good all the time. You've got the upbeat rockers like the first three tracks, mellow more introspective tracks like Lining Your Pockets and Fleeting Mind, even riffy rocking tracks like You've Got it Bad.

Moseley Shoals will always be a memorable album, full of awesome, subtly magical tunes made by people who can actually play. Buy it if you haven't already got it, the only thing you could criticise it for would be being to `safe' and pedictable. But experimenting isn't what this album is about.

I saw this as the start...
It's fair to say this is one of the classic Britpop/Britrock albums.

Four singles came from the album (You've got it bad, The Riverboat Song, The Day We Caught The Train and The Circle), but there could have been many more.

The album captures the spirit of the period, when The Verve, Oasis, Supergrass, Pulp and Blur topped the charts. Full of rock and soulful tracks, it's a masterclass in song and music writing.

Fowler's voice and lyrics and Craddock's guitar takes centre stage in an album mixed perfectly in Stereo to show off some great solo's.

This is OCS' second album, their first is unlike this and the band disown it, never appearing on their discographies. It launched their career and unlike many bands of that period, they continue to make albums and tour today. A great live band, a great album.

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I bought this CD two years ago when I was at college from someone's recomendation that 'most indie albums are rubbish, but this one is good.' Their not that big a band outside of the UK I think, but this is supposed to be their most commercially successful album...which is a good thing instead of making one that gets mixed reviews (no matter what the Christmas tree kids at college say)

One of the tracks features on the soudntrack to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and I think anyone who liked that soudntrack will like this and consider it as an extension of that...maybe

Never listened to the other stuff they've done, but I've heard some good points about their 2004 album.