Send "British Sea Power " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 British Sea Power have always possessed a flair for broad, sweeping anthems. But 2008's third full-length, Do You Like Rock Music?, took those impulses one step-- make that one thousand steps-- further. That record found the Brighton band attempting to ascend to the life-affirming, million-dollar chorus ranks of stadium-ready rock merchants like U2. It was a gamble, and in retrospect, it paid off thanks to their flair for structure and ear-pleasing melody. Even the most ardent fan, though, had to wonder: What if all this blustering ambition had outstripped the actual songwriting?Zeus, BSP's new EP leading up to their forthcoming LP, Valhalla Dancehall, answers that question. Unfortunately, that's probably the most positive thing you could say about the release. Zeus is bloated in the most indulgent sense, right down to the running time and song lengths (42 minutes for an eight-song release, with three tunes careening well past the seven-minute mark). Unlike their previous rock-oriented releases, there's no unifying theme running throughout the record. Multiple stylistic shifts take place from song to song or, in the case of the overstuffed opening track "Zeus", within a single tune. This grab-bag conceit makes it hard to pinpoint what, exactly, went wrong here: is it the Auto-Tuned(!) glam rock of "kW-h", or the skronky faux-motorik of "Mongk" that directly precedes it? Did the aptly named closer "Retreat" need to be nine minutes long? Does the ultra-filtered shouty goof "Can We Do It?" need to exist at all? There's very little here in the way of the meaty hooks and melodies that were once the band's trademark....full text |
| Contactmusic |
| Since their acclaimed debut album was released a distant seven years ago, British Sea Power have displayed a certain vigour for releasing new music that has been more than admirable. The 2009 Mercury Prize nominees have now released two albums and two EP's in the space of four years, with a new long-player geared to hit shelves in February 2011. It's a rich vein of form that probably evokes as much a sense of toil and achievement on their part as it does a worrying inadequacy on the part of the British bands that have failed to follow suit. When revisiting the group's recent output, it becomes increasingly difficult to ignore the vast scope of their work - and let's be clear - this has not been changing direction for the sake of it, or 'adding strings', this is a varied compendium of music by an impressive and often remarkable band. And so we come to the 'Zeus EP', a new seven track record that begins with the raucous title track, featuring the opening lines, "Rick Stein please to meet you, I'm sorry for being so rude, I just didn't know that you were so famous for your food". Blitzy guitars and rousing chants follow in what is familiar but welcomed territory. Elsewhere, there's the absorbing reverie 'Cleaning Out The Rooms' with its whaling backing vocals, military drums, and impressive vocal track from Hamilton, the more subdued of the band's two switching front-men. The song's gentle piano outro is hastily interrupted by the visceral 'Can We Do It? With the maniacal screams of its musing title and the galloping snare, this punchy two-and-a-half minute thrash will no-doubt become an immediate live staple, perhaps a set opener. If, then, the EP is cast aside when the band's new long player 'Valhalla Dancehall' is released in a few months time, it will invariably be revisited from time-to-time for 'Bear', a song that will tick all the boxes for fans of the band. Its restrained verses allow for the group's often understated lyrics to rise to the fore. Witty pop culture ponderings such as "I saw you reading the Daily Star, I saw you watching the X-Factor, and I was wondering, how could you fall so far?", sit delicately alongside impassioned apologies, "I'm so sorry angel, Oh sorry little girl, So sorry angel, It's a cruel world" . Issues concerning the unnecessary length of certain tracks on the record are valid, but on the whole, largely irrelevant. British Sea Power have made an EP that acts as an interesting and experimental precursor to a much-anticipated fifth studio album....full text |
| Thelineofbestfit |
| Just had your biggest hit single to date? Follow it up with a limited 10″ rerecorded version of your best track that entirely omits its gargantuan hook! Got your fans waiting in anticipation for your follow-up to your Mercury-nominated breakthrough album? Release a new soundtrack to a silent film! Just announced that your new album is ready for public consumption? Release an album of outtakes from that album instead! Whatever works, right? Still, BSP are also not a band to do things by halves, and the notion of a collection of songs that were deemed “not right” for the band’s fourth album proper (out early 2011) is hardly going to be marred by lack of effort; Zeus is certainly no different in that respect, and its meatier tracks are well worth getting stuck into. The opening title track, a recent live favourite, is a multi-part monster – a mix of ‘Lust for Life’ drums, T. Rex guitars and . Its lyrics, meanwhile, are classic BSP, taking the imaginary dinner party game to new levels of freaky, with invitees including Rick Stein, Nikita Kreuschev and Worzel Gummidge. Still, it all seems a bit too much to handle, even after repeated listens, with nothing quite working together in the way it should do; when Yan enquires ‘Does this sound weird?’ during the second verse, you can’t help but agree. Far more agreeable is ‘Bear’, one of the best ballads the band have yet written; lush to the point of saturation, with buried brass and a celestial synth coda, it’s almost novel in itself to hear Yan singing this openly about…well, anything, let alone relationships. That said, his reasons for leaving his lady seem to revolve around her populist taste in culture; on paper, a lyric like “I saw you reading the Daily Star, saw you watching the X Factor, and I was wondering how could you fall so far?” may look crass, and from any other singer, it would sound that way too, but Yan manages to wring just the right amount of emotion from the words, making for the band’s most immediately loveable moment for a while. A couple of tracks here are almost too sketchy for their own good, and are the points at which the EP runs closest to sounding like a collection of context-free songs the band simply wanted to release; yet, the two biggest departures – shoved at the tail-end of the record – are wonderful. The Can-channeling ‘Mongk’ is absolutely spot on; sure, you’d be hard-pressed to imagine where it would fit in on one of the band’s albums, but within Zeus‘s dusty closet, its propulsive rhythm and freaky vocals (“sacrifice your eyes to blind mice” may just be one of their most disturbing lines) work like a charm. Likewise, while the notion of British Sea Power experimenting with Glitter Band drums and Yan’s vocals slathered in autotune would strike terror into purists, ‘kW-h’ is a romp and a half, mapping the kind of freaky territory that Super Furry Animals started to chart on their last album. Like much of the EP, it’s inessential at worst, but never anything less than damn good fun. Only one of the tracks from Zeus is due to resurface on the band’s as-yet-untitled new album; ‘Cleaning Out the Rooms’ was written and sung by bassist Hamilton, responsible for every single highlight from their last album, and carries on the trend he started on that record for penning dreamily epic ballads. It’s a heartmelting slow-burner, riding on a wave of tom-toms which never quite breaks, but is almost more satisfying for its National-like ability to carry all that tension without any form of release. Still, after the balls-to-the-wall assault of Do You Like Rock Music?, it hardly seems suggestive of what direction the band will be taking on the new LP. Sounds confounding? They probably call it business as usual....full text |
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