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Having seen British Sea Power play an unprecedented four times in the past 18 months (that's three times supporting people - I haven't been following them around or anything), I think British Sea Power are, well, really great.
They've got a fine line in Bowie-esque twisted rock and great, big, swooning romantic songs.. far more like Echo and the Bunnymen than Joy Division in my opinion (it seems that comparison keeps cropping up mostly cos the singer looks like Ian Curtis), but either way sufficiently fierce and unpredictable to make them a lot more than just a retro new wave band..
I think the BBC review quoted above gives completely the wrong impression incidentally - their live shows are pleasantly chaotic, but their recorded material is way slick and their songs are almost painstakingly well constructed (in a traditional epic pop song manner) - they can't really be described as a crazy art band..
I love the way they deliberately surround themselves with reference points that are completely outside the usual sphere of pop - I don't know if anyone's read the 'influences' on their website / press releases, but it's a fantastic list of silent filmmakers, aviation pioneers, war heroes, scientists etc.. I think their WWII/Dad's Army stylings are more than superficial - their songs make me think of looking out across the Atlantic from a battleship or travelling across the Urals in a zepplin or something like that.. which is a refreshingly unusual point of view to gain from a rock band..
sorry about the arch-pretentiousness of above post. |
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