New York Times, 3 September 99
Album of the Week : With songs that start out cooing "la la la la la" or "doo doo doo doo doo, ba ba bada pa," and guitars that bring back the reverb setting of 1960's spy soundtracks, Marine Research cheerily takes its place among the pop revivalists of the 1990's. Four of the five band members were in the English group Heavenly, and Marine Research retains Heavenly's old combination of cleverness and modesty. In genially imperfect voices, Amelia Fletcher and Cathy Rogers sing about the yearnings of the unglamorous and about romances that aren't quite working out, as lovers strive for "the pretense at calm with the chaos inside."! Meanwhile the tunes lilt through blithe, unaggressive pop, from early Merseybeat to syncopated French ye-ye. Marine Research doesn't pretend to be naive, but it's confident that heartbreak can be contained by insouciance. Jon Pareles
The Times, Metro section, 4 September 99
Damn it, when did everyone get so sniffy about pop music? Probably about 25 years ago when bell-bottomed hipsters found themselves more beguiled by the turgid navel-gazing of Genesis and ELP than Abba. Even now ace pop bands such as Texas are sneered at for their perceived lack of depth while plaudits are heaped on worthies like Gomez. Marine Research love pop music - they use guitars, are partial to a tune and with songs such as the ba-ba-ba strewn Hopefulness To Hopelessness they manage to mix in more heartbreak and joie de vivre into three minutes than almost anyone else. Quite how our cloth-eared guardians of radio managed to overlook recent single and lead track, the wonderful Parallel Horizontal, is cause for great concern. (8/10) Paul Connolly
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Puncture, #44
This music is so comfortably familiar... though we know it used to be something else-something quite Heavenly (pun intended).
It takes about 15 seconds of the opening "Parallel Horizontal" for Amelia and Cathy's chiming melodies and Peter's ringing guitar lines to remind us why we've missed them so much. Almost three years after putting their last band to rest, and more than a decade after Talulah Gosh first ravaged the land with those twee-pop toothaches, their latest incarnation adds more washes to the many shades already present.
There are aspects of songs here, like "Hopefulness to Hopelessness," that might be called quintessential Heavenly-the vintage pop with slight continental airs; the rousing exchanges between lead vocals; and the requisite do-do-do-bah-bah-bahs. And only from the pixielike Amelia-who, as far as I can tell, has had her hair cut just like Jean Seberg's for the last 13 years-is the line "I still want to get my hair cut just like Jean Seberg" really worth it.
But regardless of haircuts, they are not 20 anymore. The similar themes of love and loss and soft irony are now tinged with knowingness and a vague acceptance. Tweeness seems a long way away already-although fortunately not gone. This is evident on "Queen B," their first single, which is unexpectedly languid and romantic, while the following "Chucking Out Time," a chorus of la-la-las occasionally careening into minor-key land, proves that, maturing aside, they're still somewhat bubblegummy-and still heartbreaking.
After a short lapse into old-skool bounce with "At the Lost and Found," they're back with two gems which could only have been on this album. "Venn Diagram," with its runaway keyboard scales and lazy melodies, and the jazzy and unpredictable "End of the Affair" both sparklingly illustrate the subtle shifts and newfound breadth-something less P.U.N.K., more French.
I for one would have been quite satisfied with another Heavenly album-but then Heavenly albums were never simply revisits of previous affairs. Their last release, Operation: Heavenly was followed by the suicide of drummer and songwriter Mathew Fletcher. Change was starkly inevitable; yet the band's history, and our knowledge of it, can't detract from the immediacy of this album. If anything, Marine Research are even more telling: old charms from a new band. Kok Kian Goh
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Spin, October 99 issue
There is a galaxy of starry-eyed, barrette-headed, cuddly pop bands that spans from Glasgow to Paris to Tokyo and back around to Olympia, Washington. Heavenly, one of the best and brightest of the lot, put Oxford, England, on that twinkling map until 1996, when the suicide of drummer Matthew Fletcher led his sister Amelia, the bandleader, to call the whole thing off. But lately, Heavenly's surviving blithe spirits have resurfaced as Marine Research, with ringing major-chord guitars and breathy two-part girlish harmonies essentially intact. If their animated sound and vision flicker a little more dimly, it's just that the world's tilted slightly away.
Sounds From The Gulf Stream offers vintage Amelia: coyly delivered songs that juggle second (and third) thoughts in lively melodies that keep piling on the twists. The arrangements are as clever as ever, perhaps even too clever in their chord-shifting devices. The mood is outwardly buoyant, but there's a reflective melancholy here: Desires begin to feel outgrown before they've quite been fulfilled. "I still want to have a chart hit," Amelia confides wistfully in "Hopefulness to Hopelessness," "I still want to get my hair cut just like Jean Seberg." Even the obligatory dump-the-bum songs ("End of the Affair," "Chucking Out Time") swap delicious devilishness for a smidgen of actual regret. The cause? Perhaps it's the discovery that growing older, which may not mean growing wiser, definitely means going through more - much more - of the same. Sally Jacobs
San Francisco Bay Guardian, 22 September 99
Celestial Research : Pop makes the world go around - or should it be, as long as the world wheels on its axis, someone'll be stubbornly reinventing pop. That goes even, or especially, for the punk planet, where no group make the conundrum so Crystals clear as the band formerly known as Heavenly.
Phil Spector, DIY's first success story, figured out way back when, when he was but 17, how to render out of rock and roll a new pop - one that could suitably express the mood of this contumacious element called the teen - and also how to produce it in a manner that stayed true to its spirit, that is, independently. In putting up his patented wall of sound, Spector realized that the way to do it was to do it all himself. And he happened to be talented and temperamental enough to put his plans over, to end up America's first teenage millionaire and one rock and roll could call its very own.
Years after Spector grew up and got old, another band of rock and roll outsiders dug up the independent text and drew from it for their own pepperland of sound, The mainstream stuff couldn't by definitely gain admittance there, but home-based labs like Sarah and K and Teenbeat were busy cooking up their own crooked pop firmament, in the midst of which the constellation called Heavenly burned most bright.
No doubt Phil Spector has a big place in the back pages of Heavenly, who got together originally to form a girl group. They weren't all girls, but they revived the sound, dreaming up flawlessly complected pop records shot through with take-no-prisoner hooks, witty and toothsome lyrics (as voiced by Amelia Fletcher, silver-tongued and Supremely overlaid) that told the crush story of head-case misfits all across the daydream nation, and a Mersey beat that kept time with their hearts. Their record de resistance was 1992's Le Jardin de Heavenly, which spun out a dozen Spector-inflected variations on a girl-meets-boy theme - only here the girl was a loser and the boy a nance, and whimsy ruled the day.
It was one of those LPs that arrived perfectly pitched not just to the mood of the kids mail-ordering them but to the optimism of the people putting them out: in songs like "Smile" and "C Is the Heavenly Option" life was pictured as a game - make the right choice and everything down under comes up roses. Meantime Heavenly themselves were going to university, getting degrees, getting real jobs - a contradictory but constant reminder that the party couldn't last. For Heavenly the end came with the suicide in 1996 of Mathew Fletcher, the band's principal writer and Amelia's brother; for indie rock it tolled when the industry finally caught up with it.
Death is perhaps a premature pronouncement; indie labels push on, and last year Heavenly's remaining members re-formed in the name of Marine Research. From on high to way-down low: the new Songs from the Gulf Stream proves the band haven't lost their pop touch, they've only gone deeper. The album opens with the slowed-down, atmospheric intoning of a muffled clock in a sleeping city; indeed, time's shifts are subtle but detectable. Amelia Fletcher's vocals come across wood aged and newly knowing; the subject is still friendship-bordering-on-love, but hot crushes have given way to cool affairs, and heart's desires are depicted with all the hazy romanticism of a two-way mirror. "You're lucidly elusive/Sometimes abstruse/it's true," fumes a lover stuck in a "parallel horizontal" pairing; another endeavors to "chuck out time" by dusting the TV and doing the dishes but winds up snagging the truth on a smashed glass- "watch the reddened suds contrast/The outward pretense at calm/With the chaos inside." And "Hopefulness to Hopelessness" describes the distance between the one and the other and then lays it all on a line - "a million things I'm unlikely ever to carry out/But I like the make-believe." The distance may not be far - not greater than the distance between, say, dream and reality - but it's nothing a good pop song can't fix. Sylvia Tan
Irish Sunday Tribune, 5 September 99
The lead singer of MR used to be in the cutsie '80s indie-band Tallulah Gosh, but don't worry, "SFTGS" doesn't sound quite so sickly. Instead, it's a highly listenable collection of cool, summery pop songs that sound like a guitar-pop Stereolab crossed with the Shangri-Las. It could be bland but instead it's charming and the general mood is upbeat with a touch of melancholy. Perfect end-of-the-summer music. Anna Carey
Melody Maker, 4 September 99
This is as indie as you can get; Marine Research are the rats who fled the sinking ships of, first, underground sensations Tallulah Gosh and then Heavenly. They're the kind of band who are supposed to sing twee songs about treehouses or something, while their fans revel in their obscurity.
Instead, they've come back from the tragic death of Heavenly drummer Mathew Fletcher with an album full of ringing choruses and chiming Beach Boys-style experiments in melody. Just think of it as the Spice Girls painted in matt instead of gloss, with plenty of grit in the mix. Yeah, they use guitars, but that won't be declared a crime in pop until, oh....2036.
In the meantime, revel in the piled-up harmonies and short sharp shock handclaps of "Parallel Horizontal". Or the velvety slink with bells on of "Queen B". Whether the tumble-down drum sounds of "At The Lost And Found" or the lyrical sharpness of "Glamour Gap", it's pop with a serrated edge.
If this is indie today, it's not so much underwater as underrated. Breathe deeply. (4 stars out of 5) Trevor Baker
NME, 28 August 99
With a name like 'Sounds From The Gulf Stream', Marine Research's debut album could have been utterly sad, minimal introversion, all melancholy synth and the blip of distant radar pulses. Profound sadness should have been expected; Marine Research is a reformation of the fondly remembered twee-poppers Heavenly, who split in 1996 after the suicide of drummer Matthew Fletcher.
Fragile they may have appeared, but we really should have credited them with a little more strength. 'Sounds From The Gulf Stream' softly spoken revelation, embracing the gentle experimentation of Adventures In Stereo but tempering it with sparkling indie pop untarnished by shamble. Even the sobs of self-pitying underachievemnet are delivered with a sly humour. "I've queued for loos with Dani Behr/She sucks her cheeks, so debonair", sighs Amelia Fletcher with mock indignation on 'Glamour Gap'. She needn't worry. Behr's beauty is only skin deep, but Marine Research's is measurable in fathoms.
"Come over here and pinch me twice/Some things seem more real than real life", concludes Fletcher on the closing 'YYUB'. Which is the correct response to the unexpected triumph of 'Sounds From The Gulf Stream'. Such sweetly observed good humour, such noble beauty is worth a dozen cathartic dirges. Sometimes, the best things in life are twee. (8 out of 10) Louis Pattison
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Sunday Times, 15 August 99
TALULAH GOSH and Heavenly inspired devotion from an admittedly small and often rather fey group of indie ferreters in the early 1990s; here the core members of those two Oxford bands resurface as Marine Research, to produce a 10-track debut album of such blazing pop brilliance that if our wretched self-aggrandising DJs don't talk up this group and spin their record to death, it may be time to storm the radio stations. From the handclap-propelled Parallel Horizontal to the tinny X Offender-era Blondieness of You and a Girl and Venn Diagram, the flawless indie purity of Queen B to the elegiac coda of y.y.u.b., Marine Research exhibit such mastery of the language of pop as to hit the Cardigans et al for six, not to mention the arch posturings of Blur. Hey, DJs: stop telling us about your social lives and how much you had to drink last night; just put this on your turntables and shut up. Dan Cairns
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CMJ New Music Monthly
Perhaps no band seemed less likely to be torn apart by suicide than Heavenly. The English quintet's sprightly melodies, tra-la-las and Pastels badges seemed an effective shield against the real world. Heavenly ended abruptly when drummer Mathew Fletcher (brother of singer/guitarist Amelia) took his own life two years ago. The four remaining members have added a new drummer and regrouped under a new name. Oddly, not much has changed. Sure, there's a Twin Peaks-meets-surf-rock rumble to "Glamour Gap," and a lovely orchestrated lilt to "You And A Girl." But those who thought tragedy might bring an increased sophistication to Amelia and company would be wrong. There seems to be a greater sense of wistfulness over half-finished pop songs (in "Hopefulness To Hopelessness") than any deep expression of loss. Maybe that's an expression of strength, a sense that life goes on, or a refusal to give a tabloid culture any details that ought to remain private. Fletcher has always coated razorblade lyrics with her high-pitched lullaby of a voice and bright-eyed beats. Still, that tragedy creates an odd disconnect between real life and these strumalicious melodies. And when Gulf Stream closes with "Y.Y.U.B.," a beautifully aching lament for a woman whose dreams are fading, it feels like a what-might-have-been had the players really engaged their feelings. David Daley
CMJ New Music Report, Issue 632, 23 Aug 99
Marine Research is the Mercedes-Benz of twee pop. This well-developed quintet, descended from the ruins of genre icons Tallulah Gosh and Heavenly, blesses an often shambling, amateurish genre with expertly silky, yet still girlish and optimistic, vocals, thoughtful lyrics, grown-up musicianship, and melodic devices that draw on influences as disparate as My Bloody Valentine and '60s girl groups. In short, Marine Research is classier, more imaginative and more talented than most of its Blow Pop-sucking, cuddlecore ilk -- dig "Parallel Horizon"'s biting guitars and delightful handclaps or "You And a Girl"'s delicious co-opting of the melody from that Julie Andrews/Sound Of Music touchstone "My Favorite Things." While these onetime Heavenly creatures sound a little too much like their parent act, their winsome but never wimpy pop warmth will melt the hearts of even the most hardened boy-band devotees. Jordan N. Mamone
Nightshift, August 99
Marine Research's debut album could never have been released in the Winter. Its innocent, child-like whimsy would seem perverse amid all those dark, chill evenings. This is one for meadow walks and picnics. It's this feeling of contentment, and a refusal to leave behind childish pursuits that seems to have fuelled the Marine Research members through their various pop guises over the past decade and a bit. Look at singer Amelia Fletcher now and she seems barely a day older than she did back in 1987, fronting Talulah Gosh. She just isn't going to get all grown up and serious on us, okay?
'Sounds From The Gulf Stream' sounds like it was born at some time in the 60s when it was always sunny; when girl groups like the Ronettes and the Shangri La's ruled the airwaves and global meltdown probably seemed a long way off. It's just so damn innocent that you want to take it out of your stereo and hug it till it pukes up chocolate fudge cake. Songs like 'You And A Girl' display an admirable fascination with sweet, simple love stories, and even when it all goes wrong, as on 'Glamour Gap', with its mournful guitar twang, or the reflective 'End Of The Affair', it all feels so, y'know, sad, but without a hint of bitterness. What makes Marine Research such a pretty pop prospect are Amelia and Cathy's honey-dripping vocal harmonies, bouncing around each other like bubbles; also a keen sense of understated melody - they keep it relatively simple, but while songs like 'Hopefulness And Hopelessness' can sound like nursery rhymes initially, you soon find that there are all these gentle eddies and swirls beneath the surface.
The album's crowning glory is last year's debut single, 'Queen B', all clanging bells and bubbling synth sounds underpinning Amelia's breathless vocals. It sounds like a sideways step for Marine Research - meandering over to play funny buggers with the lo-fi electro kids. Smart move. It is quite valid for the band's detractors to pour scorn on the spectacle of five grown people doing perfect impersonations of kids barely out of their teens, and to claim that, well, it's all a bit twee, isn't it? But that's to suggest that all music has to be mature and sensible, or riddled with faux irony or some political agenda. Why not let Marine Research just be what they are so patently good at being - sweet, simple, sunny day pop music. Without knobs on. And anyway, Fugazi love them, and Fugazi know what's good for you. Marine Research: it doesn't have to be deep to have substance. Dale Kattack
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While, technically, this is their first outing as Marine Research the band ranks high in indiepop hagiology, with three out of the five members boasting membership in late '80s girly-pop-punk group Tallulah Gosh and four as former members of Sarah Records' flagship band Heavenly On "Sounds from the Gulf Stream," the group's first recorded effort since the 1996 suicide of Heavenly drummer Matthew Fletcher, there is a mostly effective recreation of the Heavenly formula for infectious, deceptively sweet, and slyly brilliant pop songs, tempered this time around with notes of loss and hard-won optimism. The most fully realized evidence of this is in "Hopefulness to Hopelessness," Amelia Fletcher's elegiac pop song for her lost brother. Atop a muted candy-cloud of background ba-ba-ba's and doo-doo-doo's, Fletcher's strong soprano soars over the top, spinning out a litany of desires left unfulfilled in the wake of her brother's death: "I still want to hear you end your half-finished pop songs/I still want to be who I am, but be it with you." The effect is at once chilling, gorgeous and incredibly bittersweet. While the rest of the 10 tracks have varying degrees of success (though the only two really lackluster songs are the appropriately clumsy, but heavy-handed "Glamour Gap" and the sonically flat "Queen B"), the album contains enough surprises and smart charms to have fans curiously awaiting Marine Research's next move. Kat Kinsman
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The Rocket, 21 July 99
Important fact: Marine Research are comprised of four fifths of pop legends Heavenly. (Drummer Matthew Fletcher took his own life in 1996.) What's so important about that, you ask? First off, that pedigree has probably already caused some to cease reading and sprint to the nearest record store. Secondly, because knowing where Marine Research come from is perhaps the best porthole into their sound.
Though the band stresses its difference, the fact is that its debut record, Sounds From the Gulf Stream has a great deal in common with its ancestors. Though the record's mood is undoubtedly sadder as a whole than anything Heavenly ever released - perhaps owing in part to the band's tragic loss - the basic components are one in the same. Amelia Fletcher's sweet vocals still have the crispness of an autumn apple and she strings her words together in huge, sociological mouthfuls. Cathy Rogers' keyboards and Peter Momtchiloff's keyboards and guitars skip joyously and new drummer DJ keeps the beats at an exuberant pace.
However, though the components are similar, Marine Research send a host of other influences coursing through Sounds From the Gulf Stream. The album occasionally borrow melodies from some fairly unexpected sources. The wistful 'Hopefulness to Hopelessness' pilfers from Ellie Greenwich's 60s girl-pop ballad 'You Don't Know'; the charming 'You and a Girl' steals from INXS; the plaintive guitar lead on 'Glamour Gap' comes straight from the Beatles' 'If I Fell'.
All this makes sounds From the Gulf Stream a pleasant, but not surprising, listen. Perhaps its greatest asset is its brilliant glimmer of hope for the future. Tizzy Asher
Freebase, November 99
Marine Research get compared to Stereolab quite a bit, but actually they're much better. Sharper, sassier, less studied and with more surprises to sling at you from their debut LP 'Sounds From The Gulf Stream'. Given the group's history, it's a triumph of their combined hearts that they have made something to fill the listener with such joy - un-cynical, un-embittered and truly motivated by all the energy and love and wonder that first makes someone form a group. This attitude is best summed up in 'Hopefulness to Hopelessness' where the importance of pursuing dreams with all your might is perfectly articulated. "I still want to shout and scream, say what I mean," sings Amelia, which is just about what she does throughout this album.
The sound is knowing, complex, multi-layered with vivid and smart lyrics. Hidden turnings and unexpected, imaginative noises pop-up in unexpected places, but are blended so seamlessly into the overall sound that it is only later that you realise just how clever it is. This isn't just about getting the ingredients right, it's about mixing them to perfection. And what are those ingredients? Well, sumptuous vocals for a start - Amelia's voice being somewhere near Debbie Harry and Francoise Hardy, but with a greater richness and purity. Multi-tracked and wrapped around the backing vocals of Cathy Rogers they form a hypnotic aural mist that puts everything else out of focus while you're listening. Then there's the French thing - hard to quantify, but it seems to be there in some subliminal way. 'You And A Girl' with its breathy minimal verse and looping melody could be the sound track to a sub-titled black and white film - all cream a-line macs, dark glasses and beatnik apartments with views over Paris rooftops. Sometimes Marine Research sound like a Shangri-Las for the new millennium, but then up comes single 'Queen Bee', more sophisticated and slinky than anything All Saints could sling at you. In fact, All Saints would be wise to cover any of the songs here. Every one a top ten single, displaying the understatement of emotions for maximum emotive effect. The sugar coated venom of 'Chucking Out Time' - a song about getting an ex-lover's stuff out of the house perfectly displays the iron fist in a velvet glove that is Marine Research.
Given the breadth of this album, you feel that this is a group capable of anything and of soaring to heights so far only known to astronauts and otherworldly beings. What will they do next? I don't know, but it's something to get excited about. Johnny Johnson
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Fallout, November 99
Rising from the ashes of Heavenly is Marine Research. They were not gonna reform after the suicide of Matthew Fletcher, but they recruited a new drummer and headed out of the gate. Slightly downplaying some of the quirkiness and cutesiness of the previous band, Marine Research take their British guitar pop sound and give it an upgrade, bringing in bits of tweaked guitar and a refined sound while keeping the same type of style intact. Of course, because of the timbre of Amelia Fletcher and Cathy Rogers's voices, the innocent feel is still there, but their understanding of harmony takes it out of the bubblegum factory.
Starting with an interesting keyboard sound, "Parallel Horizontal" busts out of the gate. Before you know it, the poppy sound of Heavenly is in full effect, although it is thicker than I remember hearing from Heavenly. It ambles along with its' la-di-da feel until a gritty guitar lead wraps it up tightly. Fletcher's vocals are still sweet, but less sugary-sweet. "Chucking Out Time" keeps the same feel going on. This is perfect girl pop, but that doesn't mean it's trite. The harmonies between Fletcher and Rogers are well though out and used as a thickening agent. Other little bubbles of guitar work pop in and out adding to the sound. "Glamour Gap" is another expansive tune, this time they build over a slightly twanged guitar line, adding lots of vocal harmony and smatterings of keyboard filler to aid the semi-haunting tone of the song. Fletchers' voice is quite strong, while remaining sweet; almost like an early Debbie Harry sound. All the while, she sings about the hardships of keeping glamourous. While a subtle guitar solo goes on, a ranting sample is mixed in the background. A groovy bass line leads us into the syncopated beat of "End Of The Affair." The light guitar floats over the top while extra elements of percussion clink and clank in the background. Again, the irresistible vocal harmonies complete the picture, turning a possible sad tune into a summertime gem. There is some neat vocal layering on "You And A Girl" where a spoken word line is juxtaposed with the sweet main line. Again, smatterings of keyboard noise and muted guitar trickery infect the whole piece. The clicky guitar progression of "At The Lost And Found" carries another trademark vocal, but as the chorus comes in, they add a touch of fuzz to her voice and the guitar. The result is a bombastic chorus, when compared to the verses. I'm really starting to dig on the subtle keyboard that's used to fill things out. Hell, the whole thing is engulfing me; it's right up my alley.
This record proves that the band made the right decision to keep on going. The tunes are poppy and accessible without being run of the mill pop tunes. For the girl-band enthusiasts like myself, this is a great record to have around while we wait to see if there will ever be a new Elastica record, but if they never resurface, I'd be more than happy with another Marine Research record. Why aren't these folks famous yet? -tom topkoff
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Flashback, September 99
"I still want to have a chart hit/Go to pop parties/I still want to go to Paris in the spring/I still want to get my hair cut/Just like Jean Seberg/I still want to shout and scream, say what I mean" ("Hopefulness to Hopelessness") Impressive. What makes Marine Research so fucking essential is almost the precise opposite of what made the tragically missed Heavenly such a delight to behold. The twee guitar-driven melodic pop nous of their former incarnation has been eschewed in favour of lush frissons of Stereolab keyboard firepower, jazzy guitar chords, Cathy's ba-ba-ba backing vocals and winding bass all cuddled up in ten three minute pop songs that you'll wanna break your golden rule with and take home tonight. One thing remains. Amelia Fletcher, cutie pie personified, down to the innocent sideways shuffle she has perfected over the years toiling through the International Pop Underground, has grown up from her days as 'Marigold' from the seminal indie-kittens Talulah Gosh, but the astute, immaculate lyrical observations haven't gone astray. "I've queued for loos with Dahni Behr/She sucks her cheeks, so debonair/Like Barbie, plastic, head to toe/And me standing all aglow" she croons on "Glamour Gap". And the thing is, her motherly open-mouthed enunciation means she could be reading from the telephone book and it'd still have the same effect. They deserve that pop hit more than anyone. Chris Houghton
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Nada Mucho webzine
When British pop band Heavenly disbanded in 1996 following the suicide of drummer Mathew Fletcher, throngs of diehard fans cried themselves to sleep clutching copies of the band’s album Le Jardin de Heavenly. Three years later, solace comes in the form of Sounds from the Gulf Stream, the debut album from Marine Research.
The band features former Heavenlies Amelia Fletcher on vocals, Cathy Rogers on keyboards and backing vocals, Rob Pursey on bass, Peter Momtchiloff on guitar, and their apparently very private new drummer, DJ. And true to their former band’s moniker, these pop oceanographers have created an album that is truly divine.
Two things about this album really work.
On Gulf Stream, the Researchers have also avoided one of pop music’s biggest traps – a lack of diversity. Their songs range from the complex pop wizardry of "Queen Bee" and "You and a Girl," to the glorious building crescendos of "At the Lost and Found," to the Mowtown-esque "do do wops" and "la la la’s" of "Parallel Horizontal" and "Checking Out Time."
Most of the songs read like literate diary entries, sung by Fletcher in her sweet, innocent voice that harmonizes beautifully with Rogers’ sultry tone. Combine all that with Momtchiloff’s catchy guitar and you’ve got a recipe for success.
When Fletcher proclaims "So many reasons to go on living to achieve," in "Hopefulness to Hopelessness," maybe she’s singing about overcoming her brother’s suicide. Or maybe that’s just the overanalytical rock journalist in me. Either way, in today’s musical climate filled with cookiecutter alterna-rock and neo-metal, the lush, orchestrated harmonies of Songs From the Gulf Stream give me a reason to go on living. Maybe it will for you too. (9/10) Matt Ashworth
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The demise of Heavenly after the exceptional "Operation Heavenly" didn't turn out to be so unfortunate, after all, since their natural "sequel", Marine Research prove to be superior to our expectations. The Sarah Rec. times are lost in time and so now, Amelia's gang applies itself to a sophisticated pop of high level with smart lyrics, well wrought compositions, sharp melodies and kind "loans" from Stereolab, Lush, Pale Fountains or even the Beatles, whilst preserving a clearly personal style. Leonidas Arvanitis (translated from the Greek by John Koliopanos)
Never fear Marine Research are here. Yes, it's been a while now but finally it's here. The debut album Sound From The Gulf Stream from Marine Research.
Did you say who? If you don't know already, Marine Research are the latest incarnation of Amelia Fletcher and friends, last known as Heavenly. With albums released throughout the 90's on labels such as k, Sarah and Wiiija, Heavenly were one of the finest examples of pop heralding from the shores of Britain.
The addition of DJ Downfall on drumming duties marks a fresh start for Marine Research. Their pop sensibilities are as glorious as ever and while they may have knocked the pace down a notch or two, there is no shortage of hand clapability as oodles of ohhs, ahhs and doo doo doos combine with marvellously cunning lyricism to produce deceivingly blissful tender pop. Amelia's observations realise significance in the smallest of actions, her softly spun vocals escaping the anonymity of the traditional love song.
There has almost always been a sense of optimism inherent in the music of Marine Research, a playful, fun energy that will somehow raise ones spirits without contradicting the often poignant lyrics. While this is maintained a degree of sensitivity has been injected into the music, a lone virtually haunting twang and sweet chimes accompanying their more traditional semi-surf chunky guitar in exposing that little bit more soul.
Preceeding singles have been well received and the band have been busy touring the states boasting fans in Built to Spill and the ever present Calvin Johnson. Current single Parallel Horizontal includes two delightful non album tracks originally recorded for a Peel session.
They're still fun. Endearing and uplifting. Andrew Morrison
Marine Research immediately brings to mind subtle hints of Siamese Dream era Smashing Pumpkins crossed with Stereolab. Beautifully arranged songs with aquatic vocals of ladies Cathy and Amelia. With songs like "Hopefulness to Hopelessness" and "Queen B", Marine Research prepare themselves for an independent music takeover. Well crafted and thought out pop with cotton candy opuses copulate to form one of the best independent artists in the indie rock world. J-Sin
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Power of Pop column in BigO, #168
Oozing charm from every pore, Marine Research possesses all the arty self-consciousness you might expect from the finest British pop bands. Imagine a stripped down Flaming Lips or a more accessible Stereolab (without the Krautrock slant) and your might come something closer to the magic of Marine Research. Marry that with a down to earth lyrical sensibility and you have a album that warrants closer inspection and scrutiny. Kevin Mathews
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If you were a Heavenly fan you'd have no reason not to like this and if you weren't you might become one in retrospect. There are some good songs on here! Amelia's pronunciation of words sounds really clear, like she has just watched My Fair Lady or has been taking elocution lessons. Still, I'm having a hard time understanding what the actual lyrics are! This record sounds sweet but it has an edge to it, something you might not be expecting like the bitterness of dark chocolate or the sweet and sour taste of a gin gimlet...maybe like the toxic drunken sweetness of an alcoholic candybar confection made in a blender in the kitchen at a cocktail party. Yum. Tobi Vail.
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Buoyed by a languorous fluidity befitting a global undersea current, the warm, moist, melodies of Marine Research's Sounds From the Gulf Stream take listeners on a long distance float. MR is made up of four-fifth's of Heavenly, the Oxfordshire, England band which spent the first half of the nineties recording stand alone pop for K Records, the ultracool, Olympia, Washington, indie label which has released this disc. Prior to that, the members of Heavenly were doing business as Tallulah Gosh, a punk outfit which also had a home on K Records. Heavenly came to an end in 1996 when the drummer took his own life. After a new drummer was added, MR was born.
Melding the inviting, convivial, vocals of Amelia Fletcher with a dense guitar and keys soundtrack which is unabashedly pop in its devilish, softcore accessibility, while structuring their open-ended and confessional songs in accordance with an unmistakably indie rock blueprint, MR may well have created something new under the sun. These songs are both catchy and real. This is Britpop of a different era. Foregoing the sonic bluster and emotional posturing of contempo-melodicists like Oasis and Blur, MR instead channels ancient spirits of long-forgotten, first name only, duos like Chad & Jeremy or Peter & Gordon. Throw in a little Donovan and Kirsty MacColl and you're getting closer. Sounds From the Gulf Stream is a fine, heartwarming disc, easily capable-- like the oceanic phenomena in the title-- of raising temperatures all the way from the sun-dappled palms of Florida to the icy fjords of Norway. Dave Liljengren
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Wishing For My Star, Issue #2
If this sounds like Heavenly (or Talulah Gosh) its because pop's sweetest rockers are at it again. Combining concisely accurate lyrics about love, glamour and survival with delicately catchy guitar, this music is perfect for that silly jump around you room dance. Even when their hearts are heavy, such as on the closing track "Y.Y.U.B.", they keep their heads high. Courtney B
I saw Marine Research play twice in three days - first, at the Fez in New York on the Fourth of July, and then 2 days later at the Middle East in Boston. Both times, they were excellent (though the New York performance wins out on account of higher fidelity, and a longer set). It's a sight to see Amelia Fletcher close her eyes and dance to herself with a beatific smile on her face, with the rest of the band reveling in the songs. However, there's an unfortunate reason that I was seeing a band called Marine Research, and not a band called Heavenly. When Amelia made a small joke at the Fez about how she wished she was still in Heavenly (so that the name of every band playing that night began with H), it was a somber, if indirect, reminder of her brother's suicide.
Superficially, this tragedy might seem to haunt the music - Marine Research is much louder and heavier than Heavenly ever seemed. Also, Heavenly's relentless zeal and perkiness seems to have been replaced with a more mature, reserved approach. True, there are signs of regret in the songs - "Hopefulness to Hopelessness" could be read as a note to Matthew Fletcher ("A million reasons for wanting to carry on living to achieve"). "Y.Y.U.B." paints a sad portrait of "this much hurt / from one heart aching". All of this lamenting and sighing, though, doesn't mean complete defeat. The chorus of "Hopefulness..." roars defiantly, as joyous as the underlying sentiment is dour. "Y.Y.U.B" plants a more subtle seed, weaving various "doo-doo"s and "la"s in between silences, to leaven the gloom of the story.
Besides, most Heavenly songs (at least, the ones I've heard) aren't all sunshine and lollipops, especially when it comes to the unfortunate nature of relationships. The same holds true with Marine Research. In "You and a Girl, " there's unrequited love ("I wish I was that girl..."); "Parallel Horizontal" (the 1st single) depicts unexplained spats; "Venn Diagram" shows the split occurring; "Chucking Out Time" has all the old memories and knick-knacks going in the trash. Other songs, like "Glamour Gap" (with its statements about attractiveness and expectations) and "Queen B" (a fun little scamper that seems to be about growing up), attack their subjects with the intelligence and humor that marks Heavenly's best, but doesn't actively recall, or harken back to, Heavenly. Fun, without being silly.
However, it's Marine Research's approach to the songs that's worth noting. Instead of Peter Momtchiloff's guitar leading the way, it's the other instruments that come to the forefront. On the keyboards, Cathy Rogers peppers the songs with many different sounds (the squealing intro to "Venn Diagram", the tinny beat that begins "Queen B") in between playing actual notes and lending harmonies. What's most apparent is the strength and weight of the rhythm section. DJ (the drummer) and Rob Pursey (the bassist) supply a supple, versatile bottom, whether they're throwing down a bossanova groove (in "End of the Affair"), playing pensively ("You and a Girl"), or simply letting loose ("At the Lost and Found"). The emphasis on rhythm allows Peter to, for instance, insert bits of spy guitar at appropriate points in "You and a Girl", or paint a sparse spaghetti western landscape in the make-up room of "Glamour Gap", or cut through "Queen B" with some graceful wah-wah pedaling. Even when the going gets much noisier than expected, such as during the ruckus Peter and Cathy make at the beginning "Venn Diagram", it's eventually given shape by the drums, a move that speaks highly of the band's confidence and competence.
In other words, Marine Research is a collective of talented, innovative, and intelligent musicians at the heights of their respective powers, and if there is any chance you get to either see them perform or hear their music, take that chance and run like the blessed wind. The only way you'll be disappointed is if you want Heavenly, and you'd be missing out on a lot if that got in your way. David Raposa
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