Prolific Australian indie pop band the Ocean Party owed some of their high-volume output to the fact that they were made up of so many songwriters. Songwriting duties were split up between all six bandmembers, resulting in a steady stream of wistful, jangly tunes. From their inception in the early 2010s, the band released at least one, sometimes two full-length albums a year, reaching their most poignant material on 2018's introspective-yet-light The Oddfellow's Hall. Formed by a camp of songwriting multi-instrumentalists from the cities of Melbourne and Wagga Wagga, the Ocean Party came together in the early 2010s and released their first recordings as a series of limited-edition handmade CD-R singles. The band at this point was made up of Liam Halliwell, Simon Lam, Curtis Wakeling, Jordan Thompson, and Lachlan Denton. In the group's earliest form, Denton acted as the primary singer/songwriter for the relatively upbeat material that made up early self-released singles and 2011's debut full-length The Sun Rolled Off the Hills. This continued on 2012's Social Clubs, but with 2013's Split, the band shifted to a group songwriting and singing style, and the music grew moodier without losing its breezy charms. It was with the arrival of drummer/songwriter/recording engineer Zac Denton (Lachlan's younger brother, who was just 18 when he joined the band) that the Ocean Party solidified. Now a six-piece, the group recorded constantly, releasing fourth album Soft Focus in 2014 and following it with 2015's Light Weight and 2016's Restless with less than a year's time in between each. Along with a busy recording schedule, the band toured regionally often and even made it to the States, with tour-only releases and EPs filling the space between albums. 2017 saw the release of seventh album Beauty Point. The Ocean Party had finished the recording of their eighth album when Zac Denton died suddenly in October 2018 of a brain cyst. The group released The Oddfellow's Hall a month later, but they ultimately decided to disband following the loss. As a tribute, their final release was 2019's Nothing Grows, an EP with six unreleased songs written by Zac. He had recorded his parts for the project shortly before his death, and the EP was finished by his bandmates after he passed. The Ocean Party played four final shows in March 2019. ~ Fred Thomas