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| | Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster... | | "It can’t be denied that Hold On Now, Youngster is fun" (More) |
| | British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music? | | "Not all British bands with guitars sound the same" (More) |
| | The Aliens - Astronomy For Dogs | | "Instead of listing all the influences just go to wikipedia and search for popular musical styles" (More) |
| | Idlewild - Make Another World | | "A band at the crossroads" (More) |
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| British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music? |
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| (Rough Trade - 2008) |
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| If Gary Glitter announced that he was going to open a series of childcare establishments then it would get a reaction not a million miles away from when “British indie guitar music in 2008” is mentioned to some old fans of the genre. What once seemed genuinely different, creative and challenging has now been washed away in a tide of laddish idiocy, three-chord Oasis copycats and a complete lack of anything interesting to say or add to the human experience. One glance at the NME shows a parade of bands whose frontmen throw out meaningless proclamations with this unquestionable belief that they are the first person to ever think whatever has popped into their ego-riddled mind. Every singer thinks they’re a poet or a philosopher in the indie band of 2008.
And British Sea Power somehow get this guilt by association, reviews mention that even with all their intelligence references, that because it is essentially indie guitar music it is therefore as culturally worthless as anything else operating in the genre.
But, bar the fact that the same instruments are largely used, what are the similarities between BSP and a band like The Twang?
The Twang wouldn’t write a song about a seabird (The Great Skua) unless it was about how they’d got really pissed and done a sick on it’s head. And they certainly wouldn’t make it an instrumental because then we wouldn’t be able to hear how much of a lad the singer thinks he is (“I drank a load of Stellas, With the other fellas, No bitches and no bull, Done a sick on a seagull”).
And the references to sea birds, bird flu (Canvey Island) or east European immigration (Waving Flags) are all great and likeable things about BSP, but they’re not the main thing. If the songs were toss, if they were turgid indie-by-numbers then all the clever references would be wasted and vaguely infuriating. But – and this is what some reviewers don’t seem to notice – the songs are rarely verse-chorus-verse examples of indie obviousness. Not all British bands with guitars sound the same.
For example, Atom may be a love song mixed with references to nuclear physics (a world’s first?) but its infectious clatter contains far invention, excitement and humour – qualities not found in many of those bands championed by NME.
Album highlight Lights Out For Darker Skies is often euphoric and with several twists and surprising changes of direction packed into six and a half minutes.
If I have any criticisms then they may be slightly unfair ones; British Sea Power have had “favoured status” with this reviewer for a couple of years now and I love preceding album Open Season like it was one of my own children. Therefore I’m prone to be slightly disappointed if I don’t think it lives up to the ridiculously high standard of what came before, which in the end it just quite fails to do. My expectations often strayed into wondering if it would be the greatest album ever which is unrealistic. Where it fails compared to Open Season is that this album feels like a bunch of excellent songs, whereas its predecessor had a graceful flow to it that bound the whole thing together.
This is obviously nitpicking, because Do You Like Rock Music? may make you believe again that British guitar music has something to offer again and that the battle isn’t completely lost with the forces of the mundane.
Note: An 8 is cemented by the fact that Efrim from GY!BE did some of the production on this album, and that the band included liner notes in the CD case. More bands should do this. But not The Twang. Or The Enemy.
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Glenn 31st January 2008 17:07:46 |
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