British Sea Power - The Decline of British Sea Power
The collective music press has simply fawned over Brighton, England’s British Sea Power. Accolades for their rock-pop-punk album, The Decline of British Sea Power are a dime a dozen. All Music Guide says, “British Sea Power has composed a brilliant album that's nearly perfect." Gosh. Well, where there’s smoke there’s got to be fire, and what’s certain is that the music is good. There’s an uncanny Pixies resemblance to many of the songs, especially the album’s opener, “Apologies to Insect Life.” On it, lead singer Yan (BSP’s members go by first names only) sounds almost exactly like Frank Black.
They’ve been compared to the Talking Heads and David Bowie for their on-stage performance art shows. But as far as I know, the Davids Byrne and Bowie never dressed in full World War I army regalia as they performed. They’re stage act also consists of people in peasant costumes littering the stage with leaves and fake dead pigeons. You’re not alone if this seems, well, bizarre. It’s a good thing that they’re musicians first, performance artists second, because their stage act is the kind of thing that makes people say “I don’t know much about art but I know what I like.”
BSP’s heady lyrics and arty stage acts puts them on the opposite end of the “Take Themselves Seriously” spectrum from The Darkness, and some may find its intellectual content trying. Songs like “Something Wicked”, which too obviously pulls its lyrics directly from Shakespeare, and another lasting over 14 minutes are examples. And who can really rock out to songs about the history of the Czech Republic? But, there’s more than one great single on the record, and on the whole, it’s very listenable