Where Is Being As An Ocean's 'Waiting For Morning To Come'?

14 June 2017 | 5:55 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

#DicksoutforBeingAsAnOcean

#DicksoutforBeingAsAnOcean


On Friday, June 9th, Being As An Ocean's fourth album, 'Waiting For Morning To Come' - the highly anticipated follow-up to their terrific 2015 self-titled effort - was meant to be released to hordes of adoring fans around the world.

Yet as the clock ticked over from Thursday to Friday and as the day rolled onwards, the record didn't show up; not on iTunes/Apply Music, Google, Spotify, YouTube or any other digital marketplace. No physical copies of 'Waiting For Morning To Come' landed in any retail stores either. Hell, as far as I can tell, there weren't ever any pre-order bundles for this record set up to begin with, despite the album being first announced back on December 10th, 2016.

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As much as I enjoy BAAO's music, I actually forgot that this record was coming out. As I've personally received no PR, interview requests nor review copies of the album in my own emails, and there's been practically zero promotion for this album as well.

Fans first heard that something was amiss about this new record when last Tuesday, June 6th, Being As An Ocean posted a short and somewhat incriminating tweet - one that more or less answers the title of this very article - which read:

Now, no follow up tweets have come from the group since then about this topic, and the four-piece have yet to make a full statement on it. Though, curiously enough, the band recently edited their initial Facebook announcement post from saying "June 9th" to now read "Summer 2017" [U.S. time] as the actual release. So maybe it's still coming within the next couple months? Who knows.

Of course, In typical fashion for this much-loved band, they weren't aggressive nor rude in the above post, even when (perhaps rightfully) throwing their own label under the bus about why their new record is seemingly stuck in limbo right now.

Furthermore, back on May 10th, the band tweeted an image of the full record's tracklisting sitting in an iTunes library, indicating that it is indeed finished and ready; it's just being held back for whatever reason that's yet to be made clear.

[caption id="attachment_1093274" align="alignnone" width="760"]Oh, what could be. Oh, what could be.[/caption]

When checking out the label's website, one will notice this new Being As An Ocean record isn't on the upcoming release schedule for Equal Vision- all that's listed there now is the new Envy On The Coast album, 'Rituals', which is set to be a solid record, mind you. Getting back on track, Being As An Ocean are still included on the independent label's artist roster.

The band signed up with Equal Vision Records in early 2016, after moving on from InVogue Records, and I cannot say for certain how much longer their tenancy at Equal Vision will be after this. Unless previously signed contracts have anything to say about that.

I reached out to both Equal Vision directly and the band's publicist at the label via email earlier this week, but have heard nothing back as of yet. (I'll make sure to update this post if I do receive any returning communications). I've also asked a few of my publicist contacts here in Australia about what they've heard about this predicament and none of them really knows what's happened with the band, label or this record. If any of them do indeed know what's happened, then they're keeping it all on the down-low. (And I fully understand why they'd keep such info to themselves).

However, some American-based fans have had more luck by calling up the label directly and being told that the release date is still to be announced, as you'll see below from a Twitter screenshot I took.

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Which raises more questions than it answers, really. Such as:

Did someone jump the gun on the release date? Has there actually been a falling out between the band and U.S. label? Has there just simply been a production delay? Did either party do something to breach contract? Will another label pick up the record or will it suddenly drop out of nowhere independently? Did BAAO trash the Equal Vision Christmas Party last year and now the label's got beef with them? Is the album just so goddamned awful [let's face it, it won't be] that the label doesn't want the rest of the world to hear it? Did of one of the band members insult founder Steve Reddy or piss-off manager Dan Sandshaw or one of his family members and now its personal? Who knows!

Perhaps most annoyingly is the poor PR and radio silence on Equal Vision's part in this, and that the band's only communication to the public about this was the tweet linked above, coming just three days before the record was supposed to drop.

Looking at the band's own social media feeds, I can only assume that whoever manages those accounts is getting near-constant notifications about this clusterfuck; all asking about when this album is coming. Also, if you take a quick gander at Equal Vision's Facebook page and Twitter feed, you'll see nearly every post from the label being accompanied with angry comments and replies from Being As An Ocean fans; demanding to know what the actual fuck is going on with 'Waiting For Morning To Come'.

Until this supposed mess is all cleared up, all that's available from 'Waiting For Morning To Come' is it's 2016 single, 'Dissolve', the band's most recent single 'OK' (which is available via Spotify now) and a recently leaked track - 'Black And Blue' - which I won't link here for obvious reasons and because I'm not a bellend.

Look, I sincerely do hope that we see this new Being As An Ocean album released sometime in 2017. Until now, it's anyone's guess as to what's happened behind the scenes.


#freebeingasanocean. 

[caption id="attachment_1093259" align="alignnone" width="760"]More like, 'Waiting For This Album To Come Out'. More like, 'Waiting For This Album To Come Out'.[/caption]