― Ned Raggett, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― MV, Sunday, 20 February 2005 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― chris sallis, Monday, 21 February 2005 14:07 (nineteen years ago) link
having said that there are a couple of songs on the new album that could break them through.
― jellybean (jellybean), Monday, 21 February 2005 14:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― metalmickey, Monday, 21 February 2005 19:19 (nineteen years ago) link
New album out in about 10 days.
― Popture, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 07:34 (sixteen years ago) link
It's really good.
― Davey D, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 07:52 (sixteen years ago) link
I can't wait!!
― King Boy Pato, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 12:39 (sixteen years ago) link
“The aim of this record is to have Poles dancing with Slovaks, Romanians dancing with the Welsh, Arsene Wenger dancing with Alex Ferguson and everyone singing this song. We’re better together than we are apart – all together and nice and drunk. The East is maybe the future of all of us lot in the West, so long live the mighty power-chords of trans-national rock music.”
There is not nearly enough pretentious wankery in music these days. I love it.
― King Boy Pato, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 12:41 (sixteen years ago) link
But it has football references - wahey!
― King Boy Pato, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 12:46 (sixteen years ago) link
New album: great songs, hampered by poor use of "bookending tracks" concept.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 2 January 2008 13:56 (sixteen years ago) link
I'm not dancing with no Slovak.
― edwardo, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 14:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Not even if they Pole dance?
― King Boy Pato, Wednesday, 2 January 2008 14:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Kind of boring on the first two listens, I really liked the pristine melodic sound they went for with the last record but this one seems to have too much bluster and too little that's actually memorable.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 3 January 2008 09:37 (sixteen years ago) link
Enjoying this a lot off a distracted listen in the office.
― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 14 January 2008 15:13 (sixteen years ago) link
I dunno, I kind of agree with the Observer review from yesterday. All their reviews start off going 'Plants onstage! Songs about glaciers! They're so interesting!' but the music is so generic and uninspried.
― Matt DC, Monday, 14 January 2008 15:22 (sixteen years ago) link
Agreed. They have always promised more than they can deliver.
I asked Yan to explain his "The East is maybe the future of all of us lot in the West" quote (for it was he who said it), and this was his reply:
"Oh…! [guilty laughter] What would I mean… mm-hmm… I think it’s possibly that we’ve had quite a long run of new ideas and changing things dramatically. Maybe it’s time to swap over, and take ideas from the other end of the spectrum. Eastern Europe is a place that’s changing a lot, and modernising. Maybe they’ll do it in a slightly better way, if we pay attention. And then there’s the East of China or whatever, which is obviously economically the future of the world. Always East, yeah…"
― mike t-diva, Monday, 14 January 2008 15:32 (sixteen years ago) link
Have I mentioned that I used to know one of them when I/he lived in Reading? Look at me, I'm a regular Suzy!
― Colonel Poo, Monday, 14 January 2008 15:36 (sixteen years ago) link
Loved the early singles and the first album, got a bit bored with them at Truck in 2003 when their set went on a bit too long and everything seemed a bit too rehearsed. Listened to the second album once and didn't like it generic and uninspired otm. I want to hear the new one, but every review is still all Arcade Fire and Editors-referencing. Is it? I saw Open Season in Fopp for £3 recently and I stil couldn't be bothered with it. Maybe they're a band I should just abandon to 18months of my life that were pretty good but I'm not going back there.
― Bocken Social Scene, Monday, 14 January 2008 15:36 (sixteen years ago) link
My initial reaction to reading that (your comment; not seen Observer review) was an indignant "but they're NOT generic and uninspired!", but given five seconds of through I think, perhaps, that they are pretty generic, and that, actually, that's kind of what I like about them - they are an inky indie band with a few little character quirks (that could be seen as conceits) and nice little tunes about odd little things. The thing is that I think what they do, they do with real care and attention, and that's what appeals to me; sure, the 'bookend tracks' thing might be a bit gauche in 2007, but I also think it shows that they care about the idea of making 'an album' that you listen to in order, and stuff. I think sonically they're (while far from perfect) very good too, and a serious cut above most semi-mainstream 'indie' (where 00s indie is just 'guitar rock', obv.). I've only listened to this on my work comp so far, but looking at the recording and production credits I'm confident that it'll open up really nicely on the big rig or headphones at home, too.
But the key thing for me about them, and this might sound either mental or genius, is the tunes; without sounding like Geir, I think they've got amazing melodies - not in the way I think Beatles melodies are amazing, or Embrace melodies (love or hate them, I think Danny's an awesome melodicist even if he can't sing), but there's something really understated about a lot of their tunes, especially on the second album, that I adore. A Wooden Horse and The Lonely off the first album, too. Not just the melodies, but... I really like the sense of momentum and... narrative, almost, that their tunes have at their best. Just a really simple, little, nothingness song like Like A Honeycomb off the last album, I just find really heartwarming and beautiful. I listened to the last album a lot while walking coastal paths in Devon, and it was amazing.
Also, if they're generic, who else is in their genre? What genre are they generic of? Because there aren't many bands that I know of who are doing something all that similar; you can't lump them in with Kaiser Chiefs or The Killers or Hard-Fi, and they're nothing like Guillemots or Patrick Wolf either. Yeah, they're 'just' an indie band, but who else is, these days? They're not a date-rape stadium rock band in disguise, they're not AOR piano ballads with delusions...
― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 14 January 2008 15:45 (sixteen years ago) link
X-posts there - my response is to MatDC.
― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 14 January 2008 15:46 (sixteen years ago) link
I like all their work so far, looking forward to the new one. I agree with Sicky's summary - for me, they represent the best of indie rock.
One of the best things they ever did, though, was a collaboration with The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa on "A Lovely Day Tomorrow"/
― Mr. Odd, Monday, 14 January 2008 21:23 (sixteen years ago) link
i like this album quite a bit
fancy that
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 00:26 (sixteen years ago) link
Also, if they're generic, who else is in their genre? What genre are they generic of?
It's the Big And Important, Standing On A Cliff Top Looking Windswept And Earnest genre: Bombasto-Indie!
The most striking reference point on DYLRM? is Arcade Fire, which is understandable given that the initial sessions took place over two or three months in Montreal, working with AF drummer Howard Bilerman (and Efrim Menuck from Godspeed You! Black Emperor). But we could also loosely lump them in with Doves, Editors, Electric Soft Parade, Brakes, Bloc Party, the rockier stuff from the last Athlete album, etc...
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:22 (sixteen years ago) link
See I don't get the "big and important" vibe off them AT ALL; maybe it's cos I liked the second album best, and that was "small and insignificant in the face of gazing at the sea from the clifftop" (literally how Im listened to it a lot).
― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:25 (sixteen years ago) link
(I actually really like the second album for what its worth, its this one that I found dull)
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:38 (sixteen years ago) link
I didn't get on with this one as well as I'd thought I would when I got home last night, actually - this may just be that I had a fucking mental busy weekend and was too tired to really take it in, however. The second one took ages to grow on me, apart from the two Sutton produced tracks.
I think a lot of the reaction to this record, all the "oh my gosh they're totally gonna get a top ten single off this" hype talk indie blog nonsense, is the fact that it's January and there's fuck-all else to get excited about. The single got to 31.
― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 15 January 2008 10:45 (sixteen years ago) link
Whereas I've suddenly started coming round to it! It's taken a good half a dozen plays, though.
― mike t-diva, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 12:40 (sixteen years ago) link
disclaimer: i love this band with an undying and unquestionable passion.
interesting that some people would regard them with a "big and important" viewpoint (which i assume is meant negatively). like nick i don't get this at all--in fact it's that they write songs about such inconsequentialities that gives a sense of huge scale; as weird as this sounds i think of the scale of BSPs songs as being a lateral "you can see for miles" landscape than a more upwards, spacelike/cosmic scale you'd more commonly get.
the songs are taking the mundane and making them sound fantastical; i.e. there's no pretension of "big and important"--the songs themselves are bigger than the band.
― tissp, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 12:49 (sixteen years ago) link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7209121.stm
http://i30.tinypic.com/2hg48c9.jpg
― StanM, Sunday, 27 January 2008 18:22 (sixteen years ago) link
I was trying to figure out where I'd heard the name Phil Sumner before. Then I was "watching" (i.e. half asleep on the couch) Hetty Wainthropp Investigates on TV over Christmas and it turns out that he plays the cornet on the theme tune. So he should know better than to indulge in tired old stage diving antics!
― Dingbod Kesterson, Monday, 28 January 2008 10:01 (sixteen years ago) link
The Great Skua, the instrumental track off the new album, REALLY REMINDS ME of something; it's almost identical at points but I can't quite place it. Any ideas?
― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 5 June 2008 08:25 (fifteen years ago) link
PULP / roadkill
― piscesx, Thursday, 5 June 2008 09:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah? Thats not setting alarm bells off. What album's it from? It's something in the guitar progression on The Great Skua, I think.
― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 5 June 2008 09:15 (fifteen years ago) link
intro sounds for all the world like roadkill (last pulp album WE LOVE LIFE) but yeah also very generic-y sounding arcade fire type guitar sound. or something shoegazey.
― piscesx, Thursday, 5 June 2008 09:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Nothing that I can place, but can I just point out the similarity between "Atom" and Buzzcocks' "Everybody's Happy Nowadays"....
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 5 June 2008 09:20 (fifteen years ago) link
N.B. Weirdly considering my usual antipathy to This Kind Of Thing, DYLRM? has become my second favourite album of the year to date.
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 5 June 2008 09:22 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah? I'm still not feeling it much, certainly not compared to the previous record, which I still love a lot.
― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 5 June 2008 09:24 (fifteen years ago) link
I totally cained it for a few weeks in January but haven't listened much since. It is very good though, certainly better than Open Season for my money. Still tremendous live too.
― Chris in Belfast, Thursday, 5 June 2008 11:02 (fifteen years ago) link
I am quite enjoying MAN OF ARAN!
― Everybody Wants To Shag King Boy Pato (King Boy Pato), Wednesday, 20 May 2009 12:57 (fourteen years ago) link
I heard The Great Skua in a trailer on Sky Sports last night. Epic. Haven't heard Man Of Aran - what's it like?
― Chris in Belfast, Wednesday, 20 May 2009 13:17 (fourteen years ago) link
They have this annoying habit of releasing b-sides on vinyl-only. I had no idea they did an unironic cover of "I Am A Cider Drinker" and a nifty 10" for "No Lucifer". Their latest is a cover of The Cure's "A Forest" which is solid.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 27 October 2009 12:59 (fourteen years ago) link
I heckled them in concert requesting "I Am A Cider Drinker" and they glared at me. Wankers.
Anyway, I am enjoying their new EP which apparently is their offcuts from the next album.
― Ain't Gonna Play Sim City (King Boy Pato), Saturday, 9 October 2010 10:07 (thirteen years ago) link
They glare at everyone. It's ace, especially "hidden" track 8, Returning.
― Duran (Doran), Saturday, 9 October 2010 12:02 (thirteen years ago) link
It's really different, isn't it? "Zeus" doesn't exactly feel cohesive but it's full of interesting aural excursions, not all of which work but all of which make you think, and are ultimately enjoyable. Frankly it reminded me alot of The Fall in terms of sheer experimentation and mixing brilliance with driving-off-the-cliff oddness.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 10 October 2010 02:48 (thirteen years ago) link
It's what we call a "fun romp". Especially with a song like 'kW-h', which sounds atypical of them but is good!
― Ain't Gonna Play Sim City (King Boy Pato), Sunday, 10 October 2010 10:59 (thirteen years ago) link
They're at their best when they're pretending to be icelandicbandmum though, aren't they?
― djh, Sunday, 10 October 2010 17:04 (thirteen years ago) link
Ok, "Zeus" just keeps getting better and better with each play. Any lucky soul already heard the forthcoming "Valhalla Dancehall"? I'd hate to think these are the more interesting bits that didn't fit, leaving us with a more cohesive, safe, ultimately uninteresting record.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 7 November 2010 03:28 (thirteen years ago) link
Ok, how is it that "Valhalla Dancehall" hasn't leaked yet?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 13 December 2010 20:38 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^
― generally, like all white girls in my experience (King Boy Pato), Monday, 13 December 2010 20:56 (thirteen years ago) link
Was really disappointed by Open Season and Do You Like Rock Music. They were not bad albums at all but the debut was amazing and got me thinking they were going to be one of the great rock bands of their era. I'd love a compilation of the early singles and EPs, surprised it never happened by now.
I've been a little hesitant to check the new stuff. I felt Open Season suffered for not using their better singer enough (I don't know their names) because one is way better than the other.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 6 August 2017 15:58 (six years ago) link
fwiw the same singer, yan, sings all but 2 songs on decline and all but 3 on open season. i would characterize those first two and the most recent as the most dominated by him.
― Roberto Spiralli, Sunday, 6 August 2017 16:12 (six years ago) link
Is this the most recent thread? Anyway, they have announced they've changed their name - they've dropped the "British" bit.
― djh, Monday, 9 August 2021 19:49 (two years ago) link
International Sea Power
― bon ivermectin (Murgatroid), Monday, 9 August 2021 20:00 (two years ago) link
https://slinky.to/twofingers
― djh, Monday, 9 August 2021 20:11 (two years ago) link
I mean, hey, good enough reasoning for me:
On Monday 9 August 2021, the band announced that they would henceforth be known as Sea Power due to “a rise in a certain kind of nationalism in this world – an isolationist, antagonistic nationalism that (they) don’t want to run any risk of being confused with.”
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 9 August 2021 20:15 (two years ago) link
New single sounds very promising. I mean, yeah, nothing radically new in their sound but it's still a sound I dig.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 9 August 2021 21:09 (two years ago) link
otm
― No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 9 August 2021 22:45 (two years ago) link
Excited to see where they go from here.
― Millsner, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 15:22 (two years ago) link
Anyone particularly feeling the album?
― djh, Sunday, 20 February 2022 17:01 (two years ago) link
I'll sit down and give it a listen this evening. Press seems positive.
― Millsner, Monday, 21 February 2022 02:55 (two years ago) link
This new one has a couple of highlights, but it feels a bit lackadaisical in general.
― bonus donut (rizzx), Tuesday, 22 February 2022 07:47 (two years ago) link
Funny, I felt that way about the last couple — they'd have a formidable track or two, and the rest never quite gelled. This latest one felt much more polished and cohesive, even if it's not their most adventurous.
― Millsner, Tuesday, 22 February 2022 09:42 (two years ago) link
I'm going to agree with Rizzx's assessment - there are a couple of stand out tracks that come early ("Transmitter", "Two Fingers"), a couple of other solid songs and the rest is nice sub-shoegaze that moves too slowly for what I want. A good listen but nothing that's going to make me return. The truth is, I haven't played the last one since it came out, either. I think this is where I get off the bus.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Wednesday, 23 February 2022 02:16 (two years ago) link
It's been growing on me this album, it's very textural and melodic and with Two Fingers it has a song that could be a peace anthem for these times.
― bonus donut (rizzx), Saturday, 19 March 2022 16:07 (two years ago) link
Just like LiberaceI will return to haunt you withPeculiar piano riffs
― Beatles in My Passway (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 11 April 2023 22:32 (one year ago) link