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British Sea Power 'The Decline of British Sea Power' (Rough Trade)
'The Decline of British Sea Power'? Never has a debut album been titled so ironically. Never has so much been owed, by so few, to so many. For there are five in British Sea Power's ranks, and they allude to such cultural multitude that they now have their own sound, one that shall by the grace of God rise above and beyond the call of the Rough Trade catalogue...
BSP's armed-forces shtick is one to be reckoned with. Tight as regulation, these songs pack more than a mere trendy punch, like the Strokes might sound if they were sent off to war.
In backwards decline, then:
The choir of 'Men Together Today' hints at grand ideas to follow, but 'Apologies to Insect Life' is a pure massacre of a song, one de Niro would shout in front of the mirror. Vocals clipped short in skinhead desperation and guitars that buzz like electric cheese graters! Does it get better? 'Remember Me''s explosive angst sounds damn pop in comparison. It's a glorious chug that calls to mind the Wedding Present's dust, with the epic pace of Echo and the Bunnymen. The overall feel goes back further than this eightiesness. In that paranoid David Byrne croon, they make me think of wartime propaganda of Hitler sitting behind you on the bus, an ear out for where your son's ship is stationed or what that girl next door got up to in the bomb shelter. This dark mood lit by arcane candle fills the album. A maddened salute to 'Little England', a result of "brilliantine mortality", an emotion summed up as 'Fear of Drowning' opens, winning this month's prize for best first line,
"Jesus fucking Christ oh God no!"
The tunes themselves are immediate but production holds surprise. When 'The Lonely' breaks up, over piano lamentations, a rock guitar hasn't wept in such erudite (and consciously OTT) anguish since Richey Edwards didn't even play his on the Manic Street Preachers' first album. They can even be forgiven for a fourteen-minute epic. They'd express their romance through Greek myth. What more do you want?
Yes, this eccentric mess sounds
quintessentially British. But more than that, it's pure BRITISH SEA
POWER. And, that is, one of the best all-rounders of these sorry days.
