Ocean Colour Scene, you may remember, first became famous with the help of celebrity fan Chris Evans. These days, their career looks about as vibrant as the ginger DJ's. North Atlantic Drift is the retro merchants' first album on a new label, but sadly that's about the only new thing about it. Otherwise it's business as usual: mid-paced blues-rock, turgid Dadrock arrangements and lyrics so vague as to be absolutely meaningless. It's not bad, exactly - even their biggest critics would have to concede that the four Brummie lads are fine musicians - but it's totally lacking in style, imagination or any kind of excitement. The grim truth is that OCS stopped being interesting several years ago - and now they sound like they're even boring themselves. Without an urgent injection of new ideas, they look set to drift all the way into oblivion.
