Ocean Beach [Original recording reissued]

Red House Painters | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 2, 1999)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: 4ad / Ada
• ASIN: B00002SWSZ
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,490 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Songs of love and hate, June 15, 2000

By 

David Kipp (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ocean Beach (Audio CD)

I listened to Ocean Beach while on a long train ride this morning. It was a mild winter's day in Melbourne and the sky was flat slate grey. By the end of the record it occurred to me that this weather was a not inappropriate setting in which to listen to such an album. For Red House Painter's 1995 release, while full of sadness, yet resonates with the clarity of a pale grey winter sky.

Mark Kozelek's songs echo those of Melbourne songwriter Gareth Edwards (the singer and guitarist in Sandro) in that they document the paradoxical yet fundamental coexistence of love and hate in the same relationship. For how can there be one without the other? This is never more achingly spelt out than on Drop, Ocean Beach's nine-minute closing song, wherein Kozelek describes in simple, awful clarity such a relationship.

Ocean Beach is a unadorned, uncluttered record. From the sweet shuffle of Cabezon and Over My Head, via the upbeat yet serene San Geronimo (with its slow, deliberate fadeout) to such tragic testaments as Shadows, all the while burnished by Kozelek's warm, pacific voice, it is a record that I cherish more and more on each listening. May it be the soundtrack to many more winter's days like this one.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The chiming of distant hearts...., May 25, 2002

By 

"paulhampson1" (Mont Albert, VIC. Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ocean Beach (Audio CD)

There are some songs which have the ability to wash over you and somehow enlighten every cell in your body, such is the connection that they form within you. Ocean Beach contains about six of these songs. The type that you have to stop what you are doing, close your eyes and "listen". The way the organ chimes in perfectly with the piano in the middle-section of "Shadows"; the expression in Mark Kozelek's voice thru all these songs, but especially the dripping moodiness of "Moments"; the jaunty summer-flavoured "Over my Head" all send shivers of joy and sadness thru my body. This, in my opinion is the most consistent and palatable of the RHP albums. Free from too much guitar-fuzz work out (although, inevitably, there is a little) it leans towards the spare and delicate, with gently finger-picks or strums of the acoustic gee-tar, or lightly hammered piano keys to complement Mark Kozelek's becalming vocal intonations. One of those albums which still haunt you days after you have listened to it. Deservedly a classic.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The last 4AD album shows evolution and confidence, February 26, 2003

By 

Christopher Culver - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ocean Beach (Audio CD)

Red House Painters released their fourth album OCEAN BEACH in 1995. Their last for the influential British record label 4AD, the album displays a bit of creative evolution while retaining and in fact epitomising everything that there is to like about Red House Painters' work.

Frontman Mark Kozelek was previously nervous about vocals; the singing on earlier RHP records is characterised by shyness and heavy use of reverb. This is still true on "Brockwell Park" and "Moments", but by the time OCEAN BEACH was recorded, Kozelek was feeling more confident and some tracks here feature vocals that are suprisingly up front. Kozelek was also moving towards a more electric sound, a change which ultimately led to the band's dismissal from 4AD and subsequent loss of members, and "San Geronimo" features suprising aggression while remaining recognisable as RHP. "Summer Dress", arguably the most moving song of OCEAN BEACH, features string orchestration which intensifies the melancholy for which RHP's genre was given the label "sadcore."

The most underappreciated aspect of Red House Painters was Anthony Koutsos's drumming. Though he always resisted the temptation to showboat or speed things up, he provided a rhythmic base without which none of the band's magic would have been possible. The percussion on the opening instrumental "Cabezon" and the album's transcendently beautiful closing track "Drop" is excellent.

Fans of His Name is Alive may enjoy the album, as Warren Defever plays a hidden track after "Drop" just like Kozelek was a guest on HNIA's 1996 album STARS ON E.S.P.

If you've never heard the music of Red House Painters before, I'd recommend RETROSPECTIVE, which collects the best of their 4AD-era output with live rarities and demos. OCEAN BEACH may be the best next stop for people enchanted by the band.