Track Listing

1. Hundred Mile High City
2. Better Day
3. Travellers Tune
4. Big Star
5. Debris Road
6. Besides Yourself
7. Get Blown Away
8. Tele He's Not Talking
9. Foxy's Folk Faced
10. All Up
11. Spark And Cindy
12. Half A Dream Away
13. It's A Beautiful Thing

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6238 in Music
• Released on: 1999-06-18
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 48 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
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. --Peter Paphides

Customer Reviews

Marchin indeed
Apart from other great tunes, this album is worth buying just for traveller's tune. An immense song. Great video to the song, too!

The one after Mosely Shoals
This is the follow up to 1996's Mosely Shoals. It had a lot to live up to and I think it holds it's own. When released it knocked Oasis off the top of the album charts.

It's a very different album, fuller sounding, mellower, folkier, yet still full of the same quality lyrics, singing and guitars.

The first track 'Hundred Mile High City' was used at the start of 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and is a very rocky tune. Perhaps the only out-and-out rock song on the album. It then moves onto different ground, acoustic guitar featuring more than before.

For me the stand out tracks are 'Foxy's Folk Faced' and 'Beautiful Thing', though there's not a bad track on here.

This is a good 90's Britpop album, it's a good rock album and shows the band starting down a path they were destined to walk in their next 2 albums. For many OCS fans this is the best they've done. Not me, it ain't half good though!

Pat Arnold pops up and Brendan's at the desk....
As a follow up to 1996's leaner "Mosely Shoals", this feels like a sprawling album with a folky feel in places.
"Hundred Mile High City" sounded like it and was used in a Brit-gangster flick and is a striking opener. "Travellers Tune" is a retro-stomp that is quite appealing. "Half A Dream Away" is a pleasant enough bit of ska-lite with a lovely trombone slot in the middle. "It's A Beautiful Thing" collapsing under the weight of Brendan Lynch fiddling at the production desk, which is a shame, as had it been trimmed it could have worked.
The rest is a combination of folky tunes and some more stodgy guitar work-outs.
Not a step forward. Just a broader retro brush.