[rating=8.00]
London-based but with membership that extends to both sides of the Atlantic, the Boxer Rebellion have been purveying their seductive and sensuous sound over the course of 15 years and five albums, stirring up a modicum of interest while battling the headwinds of a wider public that’s largely unawares. With Ocean By Ocean, the band take a major step forward, creating textural tones that are both insightful and cinematic, filled with soaring atmospheric effects and a rich ambience that lend themselves to an alluring first impression.
Produced by veteran producer Billy Bush (Garbage, Jake Bugg, Against Me!, among others), Ocean By Ocean is one of those albums that begs the question of why it’s taken this band so long to make their big breakthrough. “Let’s Disappear,” “Firework” and “Let It Go” soar on the strength of singer Nathan Nicholson’s riveting falsetto and the luminous glow cast by band-mates Adam Harrison (bass), Piers Hewitt (drums) and Andrew D. Smith (guitars). Likewise, when the light fades in a kind of twilight repose, it envelopes songs such as “Pull Yourself Together” and “Redemption” in a shimmering haze that’s as breathtaking as a fading sunset over a watery horizon. It’s an elusive, translucent beauty that practically defies description — think Elbow, The National or early Coldplay — but it comes across as remarkably affecting all the same. Nicholson, a native of Knoxville Tennessee, brings a brooding vocal seeped in melancholia, while the band’s anthemic ambitions allow the music to soar on the strength of their pervasive prowess.
Like the suggestive imagery borne by its title, Ocean By Ocean is an album that affords its listeners a sense of kinetic potency, a full forward cascade that reaps a degree of emotional involvement that’s subtle, sublime and still unfailingly riveting all at the same time. Having finally corralled a musical mantra, the Boxer Rebellion’s time may have finally come.
