British Sea Power: 'Do You Like Rock Music?'

It is difficult to understand why BSP have chosen to name their album in the form of that tentative, flirtatious question. Perhaps it is ironic, given that the answer will almost certainly be 'yes' in every case, or perhaps it is merely a manifesto. At any rate, we don’t have a great deal of choice, what is here for consumption is bone fide rock music all right, with very few pretensions and no complicated genre dodging.

Opening with the words “I’ll be the first to admit this is a bright but haunted age”, this four-track sampler of BSP’s forthcoming third album is literary and openly grandiose, seemingly unaware of all the territory that has been fought for between punkish minimalism and opulent rock landscapes. It is all the better for it. The music here is completely unconscious of questions of timeliness and the zeitgeist so diminishing the notion of relevance and twisting our focus round to the music. 'Waving Flags' is an expansive tract that inspires feelings of enormity and full heartedness, with a searing choral backdrop and a guitar that cuts the air.

BSP can hardly contain their characteristic vision of a Britain in love with its own ridiculous self image and here this is evidenced by their marriage of an apparently earnest search for a new national anthem and more humorous linguistic playfulness. ‘From across the vistula, you’ve come so very far’ they sing. 'Atom' rocks deeply and veers dangerously between quick and economical pulses of rock and a carnivalesque cacophony of drums falling down the stairs. It winds up with an almost nauseating guitar line that strays confidently into noise territory to create something of a hybrid that will irritate purists but be welcomed by just about anybody else interested in the fringes of rock’s musical territories.

Elsewhere the musical terrain is not matched by the song writing. 'Down On The Ground' is a little less wholesome and might almost be considered whimsy. The texture is a late 80s fuzz rock canvas a la The Jesus and Mary Chain or My Bloody Valentine, but the work is too straightforward and even self indulgent. 'Canvey Island' is perhaps the most straightforward track here, and BSP bear up less well to the proximity afforded by quiet and clearly defined choruses. Nonetheless, the breadth of vision is something found almost nowhere else in British rock today and the space that the band allows for their songs to grow is admirable. The fact that they have recruited so many luminaries from the post rock scene (GYBE’s Efrim Menuck and Howard Bilderman from the famous Hotel2Tango studio were both enlisted to work on production) shows what kind of ambition is at work here too. A group continually on the make.

Released 14th January 2008 by Rough Trade.

Written by Huw Green.