Melbourne-based melancholic indie group
the Ocean Party faced the tragic loss of their drummer/songwriter/recording engineer Zac Denton when he died suddenly in late 2018. Denton had shared songwriting duties with all five of his other bandmates as they released new material at a prolific clip of at least one new album a year. Before Denton's untimely death, the band had proposed a series of EPs that focused on each songwriter instead of the crowded group efforts of their proper albums. Denton quickly got to work tracking the skeletal structures for his songs, unaware they would be the last music he worked on.
Nothing Grows is the end product of those six songs fleshed out by the band as a final
Ocean Party release. The somber circumstances surrounding this collection don't loom too heavily on the songs, though Denton's gifts for moody, restless indie pop are as strong as ever. The title track that opens the album feels like a lonely walk under grey skies, with the lyrics ruminating on the cold weather as a rolling beat pushes the tune along. Patient guitar lines are backed up by soft synth pads. As with much of
the Ocean Party's catalog, instrumentations are touched with moments of chamber pop. "Useless" stuffs a dynamic arrangement with interlocking cello lines. "Country Air" is similar, with lilting
Go-Betweens-esque melodies floating on clouds of strings. Each of the songs feels isolated and sweetly sad, many of them written from the perspective of a lonely narrator walking around empty streets. On the upbeat "We Should Do This Again," this transforms into a chronicle of a great day spent between friends, hanging out, listening to music, and having a blast. The spirit of friendship the song embodies is especially bittersweet in the context of Denton's death, and much like the rest of
Nothing Grows, the track serves as a loving tribute to his memory. ~ Fred Thomas