British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music? (Rough Trade)
4/5
By: Michael Cragg
It's a question that seems both banal and slightly out of place on the front of a British Sea Power album. It's something that Oasis would ask rhetorically, maybe followed by a "well f**k off then" if the answer was in the negative. But this being British Sea Power, not all is as it seems, their explanation opening up the question to include anything and everything you deem to be 'rock music'. So, Bono is definitely not rock music, whilst drinking tea most definitely is. Ah, to live in their world.
Said world is a mercurial place they've inhabited since they emerged from the musical trenches back in 2003 with the brilliant The Decline of British Sea Power album. Their live gigs became notorious with fans treated to impromptu crowd invasions and a stage covered in all kinds of flora and fauna. By 2005's Open Season they'd cracked the top 20 but had diluted their sound in an attempt to make their music more accessible. Do You Like Rock Music? is their attempt at reconciliation between the two albums and opens up their sound, making it far grander in scale.
The album was recorded in the Czech Republic, Cornwall and Canada with producers Graham Sutton, Howard Bilerman and, most tellingly, Efrim Menuck, a member of Canadian experimentalists Godspeed You! Black Emperor. His influence can be heard throughout the album, from it's almost hymnal intro 'All In It' to the eight minute closer 'We Close Our Eyes', with many songs building from subtle beginnings to epic, guitar-drenched crescendos.
Luckily, despite the change in studio personnel, the band have managed to keep their unique world vision and the album is bursting with memorable hooks and melodies, not least on first single 'Waving Flags'. Built around ghostly, double-tracked vocals reminiscent of Arcade Fire and a driving guitar line, it celebrates Britain's multi-culturalism without sounding heavy-handed; "Are you of legal drinking age?/ On minimum wage?/ Well welcome in/ From across the Vistula/ You've come so very far". Continuing their love for all things nature-related 'Lights Out For Darker Skies' seems to criticise our reliance on lamp posts, pitying the poor moths that are confused by these "man-made moons". It's a song that you couldn't imagine any other band writing; it's urgent guitars and Yan's expressive vocals creating a unique musical alchemy.
Elsewhere, songs touch on the Canvey Island flood disaster ('Canvey Island'), there's a mesmerising instrumental dedicated to a predatory seagull ('The Great Skua') and on the fantastic 'No Lucifer' a touching salute to British wrestler Big Daddy. It's an album as wonderfully dense as it is immediate, a testament to what a band can do when they think outside the box. In answer to their question, on this evidence then the answer has to be yes.
Stream 'Waving Flags' from 'Do You Like Rock Music?' HERE.
Artists in this article: British Sea Power
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