Waterworks

The Hershey, Pa.–based band The Ocean Blue are a lesson in perseverance. The indie pop group have been off and on for more than a decade and a half, and they've seen their fortunes rise and fall and rise several times over. Their latest resurrection occurred with 2013’s Ultramarine, their first album of new material in 14 years. However, in 2004 there was a six-song EP called Waterworks, issued on a tiny indie label. With the public’s attention focused on the group, Ocean Blue frontman David Schelzel had the band add three new songs—“Golden Girl,” “Can’t Let Go,” “Take a Broken Heart”—to the previous six and expanded Waterworks into a proper album. The group’s obvious English influences are still heard in the lithe guitar lines that color the new songs, just as they caressed the tunes of “Pedestrian,” “Golden Gate," and “Ticket to Wyoming” in their day. Fans of The Smiths, The House of Love, and other Anglo-leaning groups will surely welcome another talented group who bring rainy-day pop music to glorious life.