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The International Hits From Ocean’s Glory Years, February 5, 2005

By 

Gary F. Taylor “GFT” (Biloxi, MS USA) –

  

  

  

  

Born in Fyzbad, Trinidad in 1950, Billy Ocean grew up in England,where he began his career in London dance clubs. After a few lean years he began to make a name for himself a song writer, and when he recorded the self-authored “Carribbean Queen” in 1984 he suddenly emerged as one of the most popular tropical-inflected performers of the decade.

Ocean’s best known work of the 1980s is collected in this greatest hit anthology of twelve recordings, which opens with “When The Going Gets Tough,” a piece recorded for the film JEWEL OF THE NILE, and then winds it way through alternating dance floor favorites and lush love songs to conclude with “Tear Down These Walls.” In both terms of performance and songwriting skills, each selection shows the artist near the top of his form.

Some twenty years after the peak of his popularity, Ocean’s best known pop hits are considerably less dated than one might expect–largely because he did not rely exclusively on the heavily synthesized sound so typical of most 1980s performers. The best of his work, really, is in such ballads as “There’ll Be Sad Songs,” “Suddenly,” and “Love Zone,” but several of his higher energy dancefloor cuts also survive extremely well, most notably the sharply cadenced “Loverboy.” It’s a nice package, all of it easy on the ears, all of it playing out with good sound quality.

If Ocean’s music has survived reasonably well, Ocean himself has not. Ocean was a very consistent performer and writer–perhaps a shade too consistent for his own good, for after several years there was a general sense that his music was repetitive in both style and content. When combined with changing tastes and a few brushes with the law, it was enough to precipitate a sudden slide from the glory days of fame to an almost complete obscurity; although he continues to write, record, and perform in Europe, he is now largely forgotten by the huge international audience he once commanded. Generally recommended, but primarily to those recall him from his 1980s heyday.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

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