Album review : THE LIGHTHOUSE FAMILY – Ocean Drive 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (4 CD boxset)

August 26th, 2025 by brianmc

Cherry Red [Release date : 29.08.25]

A more than interesting remaster from pop soul duo, the Lighthouse Family.
This 4 CD set comprises their debut album, the almost 2 million selling Ocean Drive, plus 3 CDs of remixes. More on them in a moment.

The duo, Tunde Baiyewu and Paul Tucker, formed the band in 1993, while they were students at Newcastle Upon Tyne university.

A stubborn public only started buying the album in vast numbers after its reissue in 1996. It bombed on release in 1995.

Lead single, ‘Lifted’s mix of adult pop and gospel sway lit up a slew of nightclub dancefloors that year, resulting in a huge demand from DJs.

In response, a variety of different mixes were constructed.
CD2 has 12 of them, from your common or garden ‘Acoustic Mix’, to ‘Nostalgia Freaks Dub Mix’, to ‘Someone Else’s Radio Paint Job’ mix. These are self explanatory. Ok, maybe not the last one. In which case a cool surprise awaits you.

Many of the remixes were carried out by famed UK/US producer/ remixer, DJ Linslee Campbell, who had done remixes for Mark Morrison, Em-Cee, INXS and yes, Kylie Minogue.

The album’s title track was also a high charting single.
Along with ‘Lifted’, it enjoyed unstinting praise from the music media. Music Week, Allmusic, Billboard and others commented: “wonderful British soul”; “virtually guaranteed to buoy your spirits”; “pop from an adult angle” and so forth.

Again, the DJ community looked for special mixes. And they got them.

And so, the ‘Ocean Drive’ cut is the focus on CD3.
The music is more westcoast than soul. The album was recorded in the Battery Studio on the California coast, close to the ocean. The climate and the culture permeate these grooves.

The track is so laid back it could live on the beach. The Fifth Dimension are a useful reference point.

14 bonus tracks this time, again bristling with fantastical, feel the heat mixes like ‘Miami Beach Experience Mix’, ‘Summer Breeze Vibe Mix’, ‘Blue Amazon Dub Mix’… and so on … you get the drift.

‘Goodbye Heartbreak’, the third single, followed the first two into the UK charts and, like them, is celebrated here with a bunch of handpicked remixes on CD4.

Adding a mixed dozen of live tracks (Albert Hall, 1997) plus demos and B-sides to this disc was a nice touch, rounding out the duo’s ultra succesful beginnings, completing the picture.

They released three more albums over the next 6 years, after which they went their separate ways. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

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