With his debut solo single Ocean, the truly prodigal rock n roll conduit John Drake has torn away from The Dust Coda to expose a more vulnerable but no less arresting facet of his talent. The first single from his solo debut Separation Songs is a slow-burning catharsis, steeped in self-doubt and the inertia of ambition, as he captures the conflict between longing and paralysis with a voice that gnaws away at the walls of the soul.
While Drake was never short of emotional artillery during his thirteen-year stint with The Dust Coda, Ocean is where he gives full licence to his inner poet. Resulting in a production steeped in haunting nostalgia, built on Bowie-style acoustic murmurs and thick, lumbering beats that drag you into a Radiohead-reminiscent realm where nothing is safe from introspection. There’s a quiet sense of disquiet that swells under the surface—never theatrically melancholic, always grounded in raw human ache.
Drake’s vocal delivery alone makes the release a force to reckon with—teetering between the cavernous grit of Eddie Vedder and the fragile celestial range of Buckley. It’s not a sound engineered to pander, but one engineered to bruise with truth.
Written in the aftermath of an identity-shedding leap of faith, recorded between Brisbane and London with ARIA-winner Cody McWaters and long-time collaborator Chass Guthrie, Ocean transcends the trappings of its influences. Nick Cave’s brooding presence lingers, Springsteen’s resilience flickers at the edges, but what Drake builds is unmistakably his: a cinematic alt-rock elegy for anyone who’s ever feared they might be swallowed whole by the scale of their own dreams.
Ocean is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.
Review by Amelia Vandergast