Review: We Are The Ocean - Cutting Our Teeth

Coming to a new band is, for me, like trying a completely new dish. If I really want to give it a fair go, each mouthful has to be savoured and contemplated carefully. Otherwise it's like disregarding it simply because it contains something horrible like, say, liver. When it comes to a band like We Are The Ocean, merely glancing at the titles of the songs on Cutting Our Teeth, their debut album, might cause me to be hasty in categorising them as my musical equivalent of liver.
Let's get one thing straight though. We Are The Ocean have a market, and they know how to deliver what that market craves. This Essex five piece are all clean-cut, well dressed and good looking. Teenage girls must love 'em, and I admire them for that – I know I am probably none of those things.
It's easy to see why album opener 'Look Alive' is the first single. It's catchy; the main hook being the easy-to-remember choral lyrics, handled by rhythm guitarist Liam Cromby, and is an anthem for disaffected teenagers if ever I heard one. But it's main vocalist Dan Brown, in my opinion the stronger of the two, who yelps out his lines with enthusiastic vigour and really holds my attention. My only real criticism is his range – most of his vocals are monotonal, which detracts somewhat from the heavier sections of We Are The Ocean's material, which is a shame, because I feel that's where they have missed their calling. The opening to '(I'll Grab You by the) Neck of the Woods' is perfect post-hardcore, but unfortunately these moments are few and far between.
For me though, their biggest failing is in the lyrics themselves. Maybe I'm just a little far beyond the angst of my teenage years but most, if not all of the ten tracks on offer here are woefully self-indulgent and offer little hope. Clichés run rife like kids in a candy shop (and even force all originality from my similies), and the numerous rhymes they've come up with are just weak, for lack of a better word. In a genre awash with this type of anthemic emo punk, I just don't think they're anything special.