Ocean to Ocean

At eleven songs, Ocean to Ocean is Amos’ lithest, most condensed album of original songs since 1999’s To Venus to Back. The album benefits from the tracklist’s economy, and for the first time in over a decade, there are no songs that stick out as filler or potential b-sides; rather, all eleven songs on Ocean to Ocean are vital parts of the album’s whole. Even on some of the less immediately engaging ones, like “Flowers Burn to Gold,” the lyrics offer some of Amos’ most striking imagery.

Ocean to Ocean ends up being Amos’s best album in recent memory for the way it manages to combine the strengths of her early music while incorporating newfound restraint and perspective.

Ultimately, Ocean to Ocean is a technical triumph. Amos recorded virtually from her home studio in Cornwall, England with longtime collaborators Matt Chamberlain, Jon Evans, and John Philip Shenale. It’s also a triumph of the spirit, with Amos re-contextualizing a year of losses into a record of emotional rebirth. A relaxed vulnerability permeates the album.

The focused, meander-free Ocean To Ocean is big on uplift, balm and musical adventure. [Dec 2021, p.84]

The days of Silent All These Years or songs about Cornflake Girls are long gone – but Ocean To Ocean is a moving, poignant and inspiring document of a journey most of us have had to take over the past 18 months.

Like Native Invader before it, Ocean to Ocean is a late-era standout for Amos, who reaches through the dark cloud of collective grief to be that supportive presence for listeners, healing with familiar touches and a timely message.

Still in search of “a most elusive truth,” but using all of her talents to bring herself and her listeners ever closer to it.