Do You Like Rock Music?

British Sea Power

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 12, 2008)
• Original Release Date: January 9, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: ROUGH TRADE
• ASIN: B00111COHO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #52,287 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

British Sea Power return with their third and finest full-length. Here they reintegrate the rock with a slew of blistering guitars and unpredictable studio noisemaking worthy of their visceral live performances. Witness fist-pumpers like "No Lucifer" or the Bonzo-styled drumbeat bashed out under a climactic synth-string section on "Waving Flags." Better yet, "Down on the Ground" and "A Trip Out" both feature guitar riffs worthy of the Judas Priest songbook, before they're enveloped in the vast expanse of their accompanying songs. The sound here is raw and spacious. Guitars remain largely drenched in reverb, and various acoustic instruments grace the arrangements, along with various random noises and happy accidents. On "Canvey Island," vocalist Yan describes the fatal 1953 floods on the Thames estuary from the viewpoint of a football fan decrying the loss of memorabilia rather than lives. On "Atom" he decries the "bright but haunted" modern age through the apt metaphor of the split nucleus: "Oh caveat emptor / Open the atom's core." Brainy explorations like that, along with BSP's notoriously clever sense of humor, make the self-conscious title no surprise, but there's really no better way to describe it. This is what rock music can and should be. --Jason Pace

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A life saver in dull times, June 12, 2008

By	Michael R. Mcdougall - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Getting back on track with their third album, February 12, 2008

By	Paul Allaer (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ridiculously MAGNIFICENT, March 7, 2008

By	Whittington "Reviews" (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews

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.