Customer Reviews

Do You Like Rock Music?

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After the astounding 2003 debut album "The Decline of British Sea Power", the band somehow lost the pedals on a so-so sophomore 2005 album "Open Season", leaving us to wonder whether the band was a one-album wonder. Now comes finally the third album, and the answer is clear.

"Do You Like Rock Music?" (12 tracks, 55 min.) finds the band in its winning ways again. After a brief intro "All In It", the album crashes in with "Lights Out For Darker Skies", and it's immediately clear that the band has moved on from "Open Season", with a refound focus. The first half of album just flows by, with great tracks like "Waving Flags" and "Down On the Ground", which is for me the best track on the album. The second half of the album is not as strong, hampered by the instrumental "The Great Skua" which really doesn't flow well with the rest of the album. It is in turn followed by "Atom" which goes from slow to super-charged. But the closer "We Close Our Eyes" (a reworked/expanded version of the opener "All In It") is an epic 8+ min. track that quite nicely bookends the album.

In all, this is a very welcome return to form for British Sea Power. I can't wait to see how these songs will resonate in a live setting. BSP will be touring the US in March, and will a little luck I'll be catching them. Finally, if you wonder what radio station would play BSP, look no further than WOXY, the internet-only indie-rock station ("BAM! The Future of Rock and Roll!"), playing the best music in the the country, bar none.

I have a somewhat torn taste in music as I loved the fast pace and distortion of punk in my earlier years and now tend to lean toward more melodic and instrumentally diverse music. I've always had a guilty love for epic build-ups in songs as well. I'd heard a description of BSP's sound while reading a magazine review one day and made note to check them out. When I eventually got around to it, I was instantly rewarded with my favorite album in years. I've listened to their other releases as well and there is no denying they are having visions of grandeur on this one. That may defy the taste of some older fans, but I personally love it. It's the perfect combination of punky distored rock coupled with the emotion and creativity of many revered indie bands. It's smart and fun at the same time. It can go from invoking dark emotion one minute to making you want to hop around and dance another. I hear their lives shows are even more grand if that's possible. Favorite tracks - Lights Out for Darker Skies, Waving Flags, No Lucifer, Down on the Ground, Atom. I guess you can tell I'm a sucker for the faster paced ones but they are all seriously great sans the odd instrumental in the late-middle. Thank you for making this record, BSP!

Most music I've picked up has always fallen into one of three categories: 1) instantly gratifying...and perhaps quick to fade as well, 2) instantly repellant...and no amount of re-listening or critical hype could win me over, and 3) slow to reveal its fascinating charms. These days, there seem to be precious few albums in this last category - I'll either like something or not and often my affections are too-easily disposable. Unfortunately, it's this last category that often would provide the greatest contribution to my list of all-time favorite albums. BSP have always been slow to reveal their charms, but their charms are prodigious. Give this and the rest of their catalog a thorough listen...and re-listen. If you like rock music, it will reward greatly.

British Sea Power return with a new album that on the face of it appears to be somewhere in the middle ground between their first and second albums. I liked both of them a lot, however, I don't agree with the seeming majority out there about Open Season. I thought Open Season was an astounding, amazing record full of sweeping melodies, interesting arrangments, and well-produced songs. The first album, while still very good, was a bit more on the raw-edge/punky side, which is fine and enjoyable, but the songs were not as grandiose as on Open Season. With the new album, we seem to have a combination of the styles. To me, it sounds like half of Open Season mixed with half of the first album. Some tracks are mellow, well produced, and grand with melody...while others crank up the distortion and go for the gut. Overall, a prety good album, but for me not in league with Open Season and probably not the ultimate classic that folks are describing it as. If you like their first two records, you will like this one too, though. Also, to give you more indication where I am coming from...I gave the latest Editors album (An End Has a Start) 5 stars, whilst giving the latest Interpol (Our Love to Admire) 2 stars...if that gives you any reference point.

This is by far the best BSP album to date. Really though, it just falls in line with the rest of their grand catalog which never plays near mediocrity.
Triumphant, electric, pulsing with gorgeous melodies and vibrant lyrical content. Easily one of the best of 2008. From this writers perspective BSP and ELBOW are at the forefront of Indie music bar none.

Like Secret Machines did a few years ago, there's no denying that British Sea Power is seeking a spotlight upon a big stage before an elephantine audience. They want every nook and cranny of every arena in the world to shake and shiver before their suddenly massive sound. Every aching breath and chiming pulse before the inevitable scraping guitar soar has been scripted like a sales pitch; there may be room for some ad-libbing, but the end result must be the same. Instead of a sale, they want to rock the house, so to speak.

Going gargantuan has both its boons and detriments. I doubt anyone expected the BSP from the early days to ever seek out back-and-forth sing-alongs and towering choruses bathed in the glaring white light of a thousand lamps casting the entire band in silhouette. But now that they've rolled the dice in that direction, time will only tell what becomes of them. Some groups were made for big venues, generally because their performance and identity were, well, big. But after a frazzled and anarchic post-punk squealer and an intimate indie pop croon record, was arena rock really the appropriate next move?

For that answer, I look to the results. Just because BSP opens up their collective arms towards the rafters doesn't mean that the masses will stream along under the twelve-foot hang of the colossal platform on which they want to perform. They certainly know how to ascend/sweep (almost any track can prove that), but what's required to get teenage dolls and mulleted mutants to obsess with the thirty-buck T-shirt and two gallon beer at every retired hockey colloseum from Spokane to Orlando is the perfect hook. You know what that is: the sort of needling, buried-in-the-gut virus that gets otherwise level-headed college-educated professionals to let slip a fist pump and hurrah when Bon Jovi or Journey comes roaring out of the jukebox. Most arena rock groups are an unctuous breed; they're not meant to be liked by discriminating music lovers, but they inspire a rabid following all the same. Is that really what British Sea Power wants?

There are hints of their old fashion buried under the polished play-by-play. "Atom" and "A Trip Out" have the seethe from "Decline" and "The Great Skua" and "No Need to Cry" both have the gentle melodic quality of "Open Season." But none of those songs feel lifted from either album; indeed, they'd feel out of place on those records. Instead, they've been fitted with explosions and nosedives to make Michael Bay drool; careful and precise melodies mathematically proven in the Aerosmith hitmaker labaratory to cause a reaction from less-discerning MTV robots; crescendos intended to get even the physically disabled to their feet; and bridges designed for rowdy, uncoordinated stomps from everyone all the way to the general admission seating. The raw vitality and faked hell-of-it experimentation is absent. Too many of these songs sound like they were written by a computer formula.

There's no doubt that some will squeal with delight at the band's new direction. There's also no doubt that a few of these tracks are actually quite good, and not in that "why am I doing this?" altered-confusion mindset when you start singing along against all instincts to some dreck pumped out by Foreigner. "Lights Out for Darker Skies" fulfills the all-drive/no-point intro, "All in It," by being a chugging and atmospheric rawk anthem, an epic that doesn't overstay its welcome despite the kind-of-obvious bridge designed to calm the audience before the next inferno. "Down on the Ground" starts out promisingly with a quick stutter rhythm before wheezing through its soupy refrain. The aforementioned "Atom" is derivative to be sure, and too processed for its for-the-love-of-reverb design, but succeeds in offering a little grind to the too-polished whole. "Waving Flags" is guilty of nearly every cliché and complaint the sub-genre has to offer, but if there is a guilty pleasure anthem that could inspire beer-swillers to chant, this is probably it. The eight-minute "We Close Our Eyes" is the best break we get from the arena anthem sound; its hypnotic repetition hammers away until you surrender (too bad it comes at the end of the album, so the break is pointless). And "Open the Door" may lean a little too much into Chris Martin's camp, but at least its enormous force isn't driven solely by arcing guitars and thunderous drums.

Some groups have proven that they can handle the task of selling out shows for thirty-thousand-plus (mostly old UK rock icons that are probably too old to be playing those venues anymore). I doubt that British Sea Power is capable quite yet, but the flash of promise is undeniable, and I can't imagine that this album is a statement to anything BUT that they want to quite badly. Maybe they can just go tour with U2 until they get a few top ten hits on the radio so they can headline them alone.

Best cuts: "A Trip Out," "Lights Out for Darker Skies," "We Close Our Eyes," "Atom," "Open the Door," "Waving Flags"

I can't get enough of this exquisite album. It may not quite be the equal of their first cd; but then how many albums can honestly be compared to "the decline of british sea power"? Forget the comparisons to ARCADE FIRE and U2. The crashing waves of guitar distortion, epic production and the intelligent (yet eccentric)lyrics make this collection of songs an instant classic.

Is this what the future holds? ...

Look, I'm going to openly spare you the rock magazine diatribe that seems to be dominating these reviews. I've been reading these posts with a Harold Chasen-esque sadness.

I'll just tell you what happened at my house...

Sitting in my darkened kitchen, I was watching Letterman from across the room when British Sea Power came on, unsuspecting. It was raining outside, I had the windows open next to me and had been lost in thought, absent minded. I turned back to the TV in shock from the first note as I knew something in the world was about to change forever. To say that I sensed it - would be an understatement. I could've sworn the rain slowed outside and time almost froze. I felt as if all the air had been sucked from the room. How can this be? I have no answer, but as of late, I had been unfortunately stuck in agreement with Elton John, (someone who I had previously written off as out of touch) regarding his take on the modern music scene, believing that real music had been slaughtered by processed studio noise. My bet was he probably felt this way when he realized there would be no more Pulp Albums and The Killers wouldn't be able to make another good album.

British Sea Power's release of "Do You Like Rock Music" has changed all of this in a quick stroke of the pen, one wink of the eye and one strike of the chord as they shout the word "Easy".

You can tell that something was going on with the energy in Letterman's Studio after they finished, as David was caught off guard by the music, too. Paul Schaffer seemed shell-shocked to say the least. Hearing them play was like hearing Weezer, U2, Pulp or David Bowie for the first time. It was a moment that I'm not likely to forget. This is a monumental shift for the continuation of music and it's now just a matter of time before we see them in greater quantity. Of course, some things are inevitable, so don't be heart-broken if you were an early-adopter.

I want to say, that the cut "No Lucifer" rings loudly like a pro-handgun anthem, which you would be better prepared for just in case you might have to choose. Arming yourself is one thing, and is incredibly subjective at best. But how do you arm your soul? Kevlar or Cherrywood? Nothing like a nice Perma-seal, mate. Walter Sobchak or The Dude?

Sometimes music can be like a virus, British Sea Power just might have found the recipe for the music equivalent of the Rage Virus, laying waste and thankfully erasing everything bad that we've been subjected to in the last few years.

And yes ... this is what the future holds.

This product was exactly as advertised. i recommend wholly. A++++. It is all good for me. (more words to appease Amazon.com, though nothing more to say).

Often, I think as a reader that it is important for you to know the reviewer's history listening to the band that they are writing about. I believe this helps one to get a feel if the subject is for them, and also so the reviewer is actually being honest, as in not pretending they are a know-it-all.

I should start out by saying that I do not know everything about British Sea Power. I first heard about them almost a year ago, about right around the time this album came out here in the States. The reviews of their first album, as you may know, said they were akin to the dark-and-gloomy acts of Joy Division and Echo and the Bunneymen, just with more noise and a pop element.

Well, when I bought this album when it first came out due to the hype, even if I never heard their prior ones (and to date I still have not heard their first two), I was still quite surprised that this ominousness is now mostly drowned out in favor of U2-inspired anthems. The lyrics may be dark, but everything -- to the polished instrumentals, to the singer's chimed voice -- was quite like an arena rock band dishing out anthem after anthem. I was befuddled, as I am a big fan of my depression/razorblade-across-arm music and thus put the album down for a long while.

However, a little while later I found out that they were playing a show close to me. I don't know why, but I found myself at this concert barely knowing anything about the band. I had heard wild things about some of their other venue performances and was expecting to have a good time. Again, I was disappointed; the show was nothing special. In fact, I was more paying attention to my throbbing legs from standing in place during their act than the performance for most of the duration.

I have to admit that the live show was partly not as great as it could have been due to the venue they played in, its status in the city and how many people were actually at this show. Maybe the band just didn't care as much.

However, I remember the song that briefly seized my mind from my leg pain was called "The Spirit of St. Louis." This scorcher is so damn good live, that I can't ever throw enough adjectives its way, so I just won't bother. Yet, the song which shows them just cut loose and rock out, is a good reference point to Do You Like Rock Music?, as it shows what often makes this album both work and not work.

It should be said that Rock Music`s first few songs are almost as good as that aforementioned song, yet in a different way. The songs are less noisy, not as cool and slick, yet more organic. In that, it may slightly be standard indie rock, but are also done par-excellence. The jump-starter track, "All in It," walks a good line between being mood-setting and an all-out rocker. The second song, "Lights Out for Darker Skies," is an epic: Grand guitar lines weaving around whimsy vocals and un-clammy bass and steady drums, it's the stuff great albums are made of. "No Lucifer" is a chanting tribal fire of wit and passion, filled to the brim with anthemia, melody and pure indie rock classiness.

It begins to get slightly redundant with "Waving Flags," but still sells. Yet, after that, it settles down, as "Canvey Island" and "No Need to Cry" are probably too subtle for their own good. "A Trip Out" is drowned in too much murk and "Open the Door" doesn't properly rise until it's almost too late.

The female vocal-laden "Down on the Ground" may also seem slightly out of place and unwanted, but it's Atom that reminds you that the band can go places when they combine both rocking out with epic indie rock for something that is truly memorable. Aside from the breath-catching and beautiful "The Great Skua," their experiments do not work; "We Close Our Eyes" is one, but since it's a closing track it can easily be skipped.

In the end, Do You Like Rock Music? is damn fine in spots, but the question it presents is answered. Ya, I like rock music, I like it just fine...although, that is, when it, well, rocks.


*** 1/2 (Out of 5)