Review:

on 2011-04-06 CharlesMartel Said:

The debut album from British Sea Power, given its clever and historically accurate title, proved to one of the noteworthy releases of 2003, but perhaps not for the reasons the band may have intended. The stand out feature of the album is noise - it is a noise which runs through the album and at times can be redefined as volume. What it lacks is melody, in many places. The nearest thing I can compare this to is the debut album from Mission of Burma. I was therefore surprised to see that this was rated as being one of the foremost post-punk albums of the revived post-punk scene of the new decade.

This has consequently proved to me to be a difficult album to review. To start at the beginning, as they say, I bought it following the good reviews it got on this site (how many times have I sworn not to do that without checking the stuff out first). Nonetheless, I did buy it and thankfully, on first listen, I was impressed, though the opening track shocked me but thankfully, it is as brief as it is out of kilter with the rest of the album.

Quickly, I came to like "Blackout" and believed I had found that essential album track - the one which draws me back to the album a sufficient number of times to enable me to gain a wider appreciation of the music as a whole. This is one of the essential issues I have with any album. Without that track I always find it hard to appreciate any album. But that was it. There did not seem to be much else sitting behind that track. It stood head and shoulders above the rest. I can remember "Men Together Today" because I did not like it and I can remember "Blackout" because I thought it was great. The rest, where did it all go wrong?

The problem with "The Decline of British Sea Power" is that it comes across as completely directionless. It is as if the band decided to cram in as many nods to different genres as they could in the space of forty six minutes. The result is neither coherent nor ultimately satisfying. The tracks on the album veer from Pixie-esque forty second pieces of nonsense to an epic struggle to achieve a lasting impression on me which clocks in at nearly fourteen minutes. Neither, however, leaves a lasting impression.

The truth is, this album has not left any sort of impression on me in any form. I used to play it quite regularly in an attempt to discover the hidden quality which inevitably lies underneath works such as this. And after a long and intense struggle, I came to the realisation, the dawning of that moment when the veils drop from your eyes so that clear vision lies ahead of you. There is no such hidden quality. You simply have to take it at face value, and that disappointment underpins the rating I have given it.

In the end this is like water to wine. This is water compared to the wine of some of my other contemporary purchases ("Souvlaki" or "Chrome" for example). Water is very necessary and very useful, it slakes your thirst and enables you to carry on with the business of life. But enjoyment, oh no, to enjoy, you need a fine red wine. "The Decline of British Sea Power" is perfectly acceptable water. But it will not thrill the palate and stimulate the taste buds. For that I need something with a bit more substance and a bit more quality.
Rating: 6/10