British Sea Power - Valhalla Dancehall (Rough Trade)
3/5
Capitalizing on the success of 2008's Do You Like Rock Music? the Brightonians' fourth album retains dissentious, urgent stadium-rock buttressed with booming terrace-chant choruses as a default setting.
But as befits a band who declare in an essay within the sleeve notes that the tone of Valhalla Dancehall parallels the 'blend of darkness and absurdity' found in the work of modernist author Malcolm Lowry, things are unlikely to be quite that straightforward.
'Georgie Ray' and 'We Are Sound' bear the traces of US alt-rock titans Dinosaur Jr and Husker Du
in their binding of visceral bedlam with a pop sensibility, and singer Yan's hankering on both 'Luna' ('Are you going to the disco, hey? Are you hoping that you all get laid?') and 'Living Is So Easy' ('Northern girls, are you going to the party?') brings to mind The Wedding Present and David Gedge's acerbic spurned narratives.
Those sleeve notes also make self-effacing reference to BSP's status as a 'pale alternative-rock band.' As Valhalla Dancehall amply proves, there's rather more to British Sea Power than that.
British Sea Power - Valhalla Dancehall by The Drift Record Shop
Artists in this article: British Sea Power
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