British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?

So I listened to this album again, thought about it some more, then listened some more. Here's the "official" review I came up with, which will be in the The Other Paper on Thursday:

Arcade Fire is the elephant in the iPod when you listen to British Sea Power’s Do You Like Rock Music?, so we might as well talk about it. It’s so impossible to avoid that on the first few listens I had a hard time giving the band much credit. After all, since Arcade Fire released Funeral in 2004, its influence is felt more and more every year. Some bands take inspiration from the Canadians and merely pay homage, while others all of a sudden want every song they write to be “epic.” And even though British Sea Power was around before Win Butler’s group, Arcade Fire is now so pervasive and glorified that it’s hard not to think of it the other way around.

British Sea Power does sound more like Arcade Fire now than Arcade Fire has ever sounded like British Sea Power. (It’s probably not coincidental that one of the album’s producers, Howard Bilerman, has worked with Arcade Fire.) But after acknowledging that fact, I realized that endlessly playing the influence game with Do You Like Rock Music? would do a disservice to the band. Because, in answer to the album title’s query--yes, yes I do like rock music, and this is pretty good rock music, no matter who came first or who influenced whom.

For this disc, British Sea Power abandoned most of its post-punk leanings. You’d be hard-pressed to liken this album to anything by Joy Division. This is also the band’s most melodic and therefore its most accessible showing yet. Though there’s an eight-minute closer, you won’t find much similar to the meandering 14-minute track “Lately” from the band’s 2003 Rough Trade debut. Some of the melodic quirkiness and surprising turns are gone, which in theory might be something to mourn, but fortunately they’re replaced by well-constructed pop tunes. “Open the Door” could even be a James song. And yes, it all feels brazenly epic, especially “Waving Flags,” which is supposedly a tribute to Polish plumbers. The album even kicks off with a two-minute, swelling chant of, “We’re all in it and we close our eyes.”

British Sea Power certainly hasn’t lost its quirkiness lyrically. The boys from Brighton, England, are known for their diverse and bizarre subject matter. “Atom” tackles physics: “When you get down, down to the subatomic part of it, that’s when it breaks you know, that’s when it falls apart. Oh caveat emptor, open the atom’s core.” Offbeat lyrics make British Sea Power more interesting in some ways, but it’s probably also why Do You Like Rock Music? doesn’t make quite as much of an emotional impact as Funeral or Neon Bible, both of which have a specific theme and mood. The opening track, “All In It,” does come full circle with the last one, “We Close Our Eyes,” but Rock Music could use a little more thematic glue to hold together all its anthems in between.

It would be tough to find tracks more epic than these, and who doesn’t like epic rock music? But even if you like it, the next question becomes, do you care about it? For me, it was a resounding, “Usually.”

mp3: British Sea Power - Waving Flags

Arcade Power

With all the praise heaped upon Arcade Fire since the debut of Funeral, it only makes sense that the band's trademark epics are influencing the current crop of indie rockers. Last year, I thought Okkervil River's Will Sheff matched Win Butler's emotional-without-being-emo intensity on The Stage Names, and check out Josh Ritter's "Empty Hearts" (from The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter) at around the two-minute mark to hear a melody copied note for note from Funeral's "Neigborhood #2 (Laika)."

Fortunately, I'd argue that both those releases were tastefully influenced by Butler's Canadian crew rather than being carbon copies. My skepto-meter, though, hits higher on British Sea Power's upcoming Do You Like Rock Music?. Granted, I've only given it a couple cursory listens, but these Brits seem to have completely abandoned their post-punk leanings for the purpose of aping Arcade Fire's grandeur, especially on "Waving Flags." The strings, the rhythm... even the background vocals could be mistaken for a bunch of Regine Chassagnes bathed in echo.

I don't really dislike the tune, but it does rub me the wrong way, tripping over that quivery line between influence and mimic. Perhaps the tune and the album as a whole should be listened to as a work set apart from all those preconceptions, but I can't help thinking about BSP's intentions. What about you?

Do You Like Rock Music? is out in the U.S. Feb. 12 on Rough Trade, and British Sea Power will be at The Basement 3/27.

mp3: British Sea Power - Waving Flags