At first glimpse of the album art – details from Helen Maurene Cooper’s Birds Of Appetite series – it becomes apparent that a certain surrealquality will mark the contents within The Blue Depths. A sense of longingand desire is buried within the dizzying layers. Odawas heighten the more subtle components of previous efforts, unashamedly giving into their love of Vangelis’ romanticism, Eric Serra’s dusky mysticism, and the sweeping, Southwestern strings of Jack Nitzsche. They demonstrate their mastery of nudging to the edge of the over the top with enchanting results.The Blue Depths is an album for warmer places, a balmy haze habitat for headphone meanderings. This is a dream world where Neil Young and Jimmy Webb float in the reverb-saturated summer breeze. The solemn harmonies of “Moonlight/Twilight” drift between sheets of stirring bowed bass murmur as shimmering guitar notes ebb and flow underneath. Bursts of yearning harmonica arc over ethereal soundscapes in “The Case Of The Great Irish Elk.” The jubilant piano of “Harmless Lover’s Discourse” gives way to the most startling pop moment of the album, a soaring bed of synth propelled by a driving bass line and vibrant rhythms.Pulses of light extend towards the murky crevasse of the subconscious: these depths never looked so enticing.- Joel Beeman
