OOBERMAN: Carried Away: 4 stars * * * *

MUSIC OHM.COM :

Ooberman - Carried Away (Rotodisc)

UK release date: 7 August 2006

Though it's great about Lily Allen and all, what would be really good about the MySpace generation is if a band like Ooberman became popular. The story of the band's flirtation with commercial success in the late '90s, when they released a cluster of cosmically-formed poetic pop nuggets, is a well-worn and tiresome one in my circles, yet as they come round again and you're accosted by what's now an intricately-developed beauty, you can't help once more thinking "just maybe..." 2002's Running Girl mini-album signified a profound departure for the band into introspective depths that had only been touched upon playfully in their early incarnation. Harbingered by the band's increasing interest in Eastern art, their journey into Eastern-European folk stylings was an underrated success, sublime tracks like Here Come the Ice Wolves and Ghosts crackling with a strange and exotic fascination that the band adopted with seamless aplomb. Running Girl and its full-length follow-up, Hey Petrunko, marked Ooberman out as a group of fascinating, utterly alternative evolution, and it's great to have them back in what will hopefully be a time of easier productivity. I say this because Carried Away sounds like it's come easier to them, in the way that things do after you've strived and delved so deep for a certain period, watched the fruits appear, and then, for whatever reason, subsided into the background only to come back later. During their hiatus, lead singer Dan Popplewell put his mind to creating cinematic soundtracks (one of which was used to score a documentary on leopards), and on returning to the Oober garden, you sense his greater freedom. Carried Away carries no burden of creativity, but thrives on a kind of intensity of lassitude, the eleven tracks having a lighter feel that beguiles you into their depths. Ooberman have never been a band to embrace humour or irony to any great effect, but in its place they have a sparkling earnestness that, in a poetic line or blinding aural melody, can bring a swelling of tears to the eyes like no other band I've been brought up with. As the warm days stretch themselves out like Algerian cats, Lavender Blue has that ease of summer coated in a wondrous winter warmth, while tracks like opener Carried Away and Beauty of Your Soul are substantial and shimmering torrents of spectral pop bliss. Popplewell and Churney retain all the subtle magic of their past co-songwriting endeavours, and the rolling piano and wistful poetry of Mary Grows Old and Far Far Away is stunningly poignant and beautifully poised, while the Flett brothers' contributions, filled out with Churney's layered backing vocals, are becoming quintessential Ooberman. And now there's that voice. Though Popplewell's newer ease has translated itself to his own vocals, which now sound more soulful than ever, the decision to hand over lead duties to his partner Sophia Churney is a wise one. Churney's voice came to prominence with Ooberman's small band of followers in the tearful poem at the end of early single Shorley Wall, and since then Popplewell has coaxed more and more out of it until now we're greeted by an angel of the ancients. The already sweetly moving, profoundly-spiritual lyrics and refrains of Popplewell, the Fletts and Churney herself are now emoted in grand style by the half-Russian/half-Welsh beauty at the Oober-helm, and if this isn't a recipe for glory, I don't know what is. With Carried Away a relaxedly accomplished success, an emotional reunion is promised when the band venture out on the road, and here's to the old brigade of unfashionable 'ooberpeeps' being augmented by your good self. What we'll all be getting is a startling end product that is hopefully here for good. - Neil Jones

GIGWISE.COM:

Ooberman have never yet achieved mainstream success despite a top 40 single, critical appraisal and four Glastonbury appearances. Fortunes may sway with  'Carried Away' their third album with Sophia Churney taking over on lead vocals and a trademark richness of harmony and production, an album that bubbles and simmers rather than exploding. Ooberman bring to mind Moloko, Grandaddy and The Flaming Lips with more emphasis on harmonies and orchestration rather than funk, the use of keyboards over guitars.

'Carried Away' the title track opens this box of tricks spinning and whirling like a merry-go-round/ ferris wheel, the programmed orchestrations swooping and Sophia's voice pure and angelic with a yarn about a chappie who does away with his family to avoid being seen to be a failure in their eyes, "...at the dawning of the day/ after tidying their breakfast away...he blew his own family away...". 'Crashing Ellipticals' has anthemic qualities like The Flaming Lips with matters cosmological relating the personal of "...you only call when you want me..." to the universal "...like a comet around the sun, every night is a lonely one...".

Pop flows with 'Easy', a melodious work about how others lives look easy from the outside and the dictum - "...find the path/ lose the doubt...", and 'Eye Of The Storm' like Phil Collins Genesis. 'Bong' is a great hippyish tune with riffing acoustic guitar - "Someone's stolen my mobile phone/ and I'm 500 miles away from home/ but it's ok cos I'm feelin mellow, mellow...", and the phonetic use of the word 'bong' ping ponging.

'Beauty Of Your Soul' is a piece of ethereal pop with Sophia sounding like the late Kirsty Macoll as she does on 'Far Far Away' with its tale of the fickle heart - "...you say oh, oh no/ here comes trouble...". Soundtrack material could be conceived from 'Mary Grows Old' - the tinkling ivories like an excerpt from Amelie or Chocolat, a narrative about a nanny and her sad reflections; and 'Twinkling Aurora' like Star Trek passing through the pearly gates.

'Carried Away' possesses its fair share of ethereal qualities, like what they might play on the planet Jupiter should they do pop. Ooberman carry the spangly pop baton with confidence and bring great orchestration to bear - hard to conceive how success would elude them on this release.
 

Ooberman Carried Away Rotodisc   Article written by Paul M Oct 9, 2006.   Few bands deserve a second shot at reaching the public’s fickle ear more than Merseyside’s Ooberman. Having split in 2003 despite recording one of the finest albums of that year in Hey Petrunko, they have returned with something equally lush, the sumptuous synthpop of Carried Away. During the break frontman Dan Popplewell created soundtracks and it’s this full orchestral sound that’s been carried forward to make this album so magical. The gentle strings, floating keys and sweet melodies could possibly all exist on their own; that they are usually joined by the beguiling vocals of Sophia and layers of soaring harmonies, merely adds to the impressive symphonic backdrops. The two singles, the lilting pop folk of Beauty of the Soul and the soft rock gospel of Crashing Ellipticals, are early highlights, along with the celtic sweeps of the title track, while Lavender Blue and Falling Down both wouldn’t be too embarrassed by their company if they were suddenly plonked on Sgt Pepper. Indeed there’s plenty to enjoy and fans of Joy Zipper and Saint Etienne in particular would find much to appreciate. Whether this is the one to finally launch them time will tell. When Dan sings “Nobody said it was easy / nobody says it was fair” during the gorgeous strident ballad Easy, you can’t help but feel he could also be commenting on the fortunes of his band so far. It’d be nice to think that their luck was about to change.

 

 

'The Beauty of Your Soul' single (June 2006):

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