Product Description

'The Decline Of British Sea Power' is the debut album from the Brighton based band of the same name. The album is a quirky mix of guitar driven pop, Phil Spector style walls of sound, and synth based new wave, they have also be described as the '...the band you've been waiting for since the demise of Joy Division and The Smiths...'. The album also features the single 'Carrion'.

Track Listing

1. Men Together Today
2. Apologies To Insect Life
3. Favours In The Beetroot Fields
4. Something Wicked
5. Remember Me
6. Fear Of Drowning
7. The Lonely
8. Carrion
9. Blackout
10. Lately
11. A Wooden Horse

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8836 in Music
• Released on: 2003-06-02
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Even from the title, The Decline of British Sea Power, it is apparent that the band ooze a quintessentially British style. With an indie swagger echoing the simmering frustration of Joy Division, the gloomy melodies of the Psychedelic Furs and the enchanting irony of the Smiths, British Sea Power have a distinctly retrospective feel. Despite having one foot firmly entrenched in the sonic mire of the 1980s, the Brighton-based quartet are also astute observers of contemporary absurdities. Mixing war imagery with the mundane, The Decline of British Sea Power is a strikingly urgent artful album that pieces together life's contradictions with a seductive feisty charm. With the likes of the operatic "Men Together Today" and bass-driven furious assault of "Apologies to Insect Life" coming back to back it's immediately apparent that this trenchant debut album is worthy of the hype generated by their string of acclaimed preceding singles. Previous A-sides "Remember Me" and "Fear of Drowning" are both in attendance, having been completely rerecorded, while "The Lonely" is doubtless one of the most delightful moments in recent angular guitar-pop history. Having taken their time to launch this album, British Sea Power have refined the beguiling mix of wry wit, brooding melodies and rousing angst-fuelled sonic attacks to perfection and can look forward to a long voyage ahead. --Christopher Barrett

Customer Reviews

Sail before steam please
Having read a complimentary review of this band in The Guardian (I think), I caught a glimpse of BSP on 'Later' surrounded by their foliage and was impressed enough to take a chance on this album. The short opening vocal track built my interest further, but what followed was immensely disappointing. I have read a few of the other reviews on here which reference art and BSP's intentions in pursuit of the same. The trouble with rock bands who go on about their music in this way, however, is that they are usually doing little more than spouting a lot of flannel.
'Apologies To Insect Life' has one of those shouted, unintelligible lyrics that loses out to a tuneless thrash. The same crime is committed elsewhere. Rock bands of the 1970s have long been pilloried by their critics for creating overblown epics, but many of them were works of beauty. Here, we have BSP's take on the symphony, the eleven-minute 'Lately', which, for the most part, is as interesting as a soundcheck and ends with another thrash. It is drivel and it isn't even original. Bands have been spouting this sort of pointless white noise for nigh on thirty years.
It isn't all bad news. 'Something Wicked' is a good song, though it highlights vocal shortcomings, while 'Carrion' is better still and the three tracks in between are passable. The rest is hardly worth mentioning. I'd love to be able to say something complimentary about 21st century music, but seven years in the list of worthwhile releases is pitifully short.

Interesting
I decided to buy this album on the back of generally rave reviews and a couple of snippets of it which I had heard and enjoyed. At first I thought I'd made a mistake; the first three tracks are kind of crude and strident, and i was rather tempted to listen to something else. However, from track 4 onwards things pick up a lot, although I still have no idea what the songs are actually about.

A generally good album, though prehaps a bit samey, the standout tracks being 'Remember Me', 'The Lonely', 'Carrion' and 'Lately'.

Like a Turner painting in music
When this album was recorded the band said that they wanted it to sound like a painting by JWH Turner set to music. They achieved this. Like Turner they turned to subjects out of step with what the rest of their contemporaries deemed worthy and created something of utter beauty and striking originality. The album opens with a short burst of Gregorian chanting.

The album then ranges from the visceral roar of 'Apologies to Insect Life' (a song based upon Dostevsky's book 'Notes from the Underground) to the simple beauty of 'A Wooden Horse'. In between they produce a song set of subtlety, beauty and fantastic pop hooks with some of the most idiosyncratically wonderful lyrics of recent times. Highlights include the singles 'Remember Me' and 'Carrion', the wonderfully soulful 'Something Wicked' and the extraordinary touchstone that is 'Lately' a 14 minute epic whose gradual build and quiet/loud dynamic recalls many of the finer moments of post-rock, whilst taking in lyrical references to LP Hartley, prehistoric rocks and the Kattegut.
For anyone prepared to listen to an intelligent, powerful band who bring both subtlety and raw power to their music this is a must have album.