Album: Lovely
Year: 1987
. . .
On the shortlist of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Indie-Pop Division, “Ocean Blue” in and of itself justified The Primitives calling their debut Lovely. On a record that’s full of short sharp shocks, the lazy hazy vibe of “Ocean Blue” — and the epic length of 3:25! — made it a complete outlier.
And of course, on a record like Lovely, there’s always the danger that the slow epic is going to drag the whole record to a halt, but by making “Ocean Blue” the next to last song, they not only didn’t drag it down, they also pointed the way to their next record, Pure, which would be much slower and weirder.
But, of course, in the summer of 1988, I didn’t know any of that. All I knew is that I loved the big rumbling bassline by Steve Dullaghan and and the modified Spector beat that drummer Tig Williams was playing, over which Tracy Tracy exquisitely sang:
What’s the rush, just take it slow
Ease your mind, let your heart flow
Don’t think twice I’m here for you
Swim with me in ocean blue
Like children do
Ain’t life a game
With the whole song bathed in a blue ocean of echo and reverb and swirling synths, “Ocean Blue” could have gotten lost in its own pretensions, but instead, Paul Court somehow anchors it with both his ever-present rhythm guitar and a simple six-note lead that dominates the second half of the song and allows Tracy to float away over the horizon.
Like children do
Like children do
Like children do
Like children do
Like children do
Like children do
I’m ready now
I’m ready now
I’m ready now
I’m ready now
I’m ready now
I’m ready now
I’m ready now
In ocean blue
In ocean blue
In ocean blue
In ocean blue
In ocean blue
In ocean blue
Weirdly enough, even though it’s totally different from everything else on the album, the unbearable near-psychedelic loveliness of “Ocean Blue” sitting near the end of side two was actually what allowed me to figure out how to distinguish the rest of the non-“Crash” songs from each other and completely fall in love with Lovely, and salvage at least some of that otherwise brutal summer & autumn.
“Ocean Blue”
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