BRITISH SEA POWER Vinyl & CDs

Review: British Sea Power's Do You Like Rock Music? is a triumphant exploration of anthemic rock soundscapes. Released in 2008, the album captures the band's distinctive blend of indie rock, post-punk, and art-rock influences. The tracks unfold with a dynamic energy, featuring soaring guitar riffs, atmospheric arrangements, and emotionally charged lyrics. Standout songs like 'Waving Flags' showcase their ability to create powerful, stadium-worthy moments, while the album as a whole exemplifies British Sea Power's penchant for crafting a cohesive sonic journey. As such this record solidified the band's reputation for delivering ambitious and compelling musical narratives, and this deluxe version contains an additional ten tracks culled from radio sessions and B-sides.

Review: British Sea Power's Do You Like Rock Music? album was the third album from the Brighton-based experimental rock band and was originally released in 2008. It epitomises everything the band is best known for - big, widescreen epics, incendiary guitar riffs, atmosphere-packed arrangements and euphoric, stadium-sized climaxes to their sonic journeys. The 12-tracker sees the four piece's core sound augmented by a huge list of additional musicians adding everything from harmonium to choral trimmings to the mix and this deluxe anniversary edition comes with a bonus disc of ten tracks from radio sessions and B-sides to the single 'No Lucifer'.

Review: Art is politics, and it should never kowtow to fears of political perception. Within limits, of course. British Sea Power's decision to drop the 'British' part in August 2021 due to "a rise in a certain kind of nationalism in this world" was at once understandable and disappointing when seen in this context, then, effectively bookending an era that began with one of the most exciting debuts of the early-21st Century, The Decline of British Sea Power. In many ways, that record was an omen for what was to come, with the band going on to achieve bigger and bigger commercial success while failing to convince some of their originality and innovation. Man of Arran marked a definite high point, a reimagined score to a 1934 movie of the same name, which originally came boxed with the record. Evocative, inspiring, epic and adventurous, suffice to say with music like this we were truly blessed.