In theory, but all the great albums with the pop sensibility all have their minor weaknesses imho. MOA is a wholly finished concept album, great from start to finish.
― On Some Faraday Beach (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 6 April 2017 15:45 (seven years ago) link
(I can't live without ' Cleaning out the Rooms' though tbh)
― On Some Faraday Beach (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 6 April 2017 15:46 (seven years ago) link
^ Also my favourite.
With this album, I've found myself a) strangely disinterested in hearing it and b) oddly cynical about the positive reviews I've read.
― djh, Thursday, 6 April 2017 17:49 (seven years ago) link
Yeah it was a shame they had to reuse Cleaning Out The Rooms on the ensuing album because it was obviously the best thing on it and a sign they'd been a bit short of inspiration
― an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality (imago), Thursday, 6 April 2017 17:56 (seven years ago) link
lol what. i think just possibly they conceived of the ep after the album was done. maybe they cobbled the album together in the 2 months between the respective releases but i am skeptical
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 6 April 2017 18:15 (seven years ago) link
Well then why is Mongk on the EP and Mongk 2 on the album then, u mongk
― an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality (imago), Thursday, 6 April 2017 18:20 (seven years ago) link
In an interview with Drowned in Sound, guitarist Martin Noble stated:
Believe it or not, ‘Mongk II’ was actually written first and ‘Mongk’ which came out first is a remix! We’d always intended saving ‘Mongk II’ for the album anyway so when it came to putting together Zeus we did a different version of ‘Mongk’ which became number one.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 6 April 2017 18:21 (seven years ago) link
Fine well I have no idea why I prefer the EP then, imo Zeus and Bear are both better than anything on VD as well, no idea of the choices that went into it all
― an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality (imago), Thursday, 6 April 2017 18:25 (seven years ago) link
Think Bear is my BSP OPO
― an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality (imago), Thursday, 6 April 2017 18:27 (seven years ago) link
i guess they just had a lot of material, the album is already an hour long. there's no place for zeus, i am sure the idea for the EP at all was based on them having zeus and nothing else to do with it. maybe you could make room for bear, take something else off, although i am not sure what. and if they had decided to put cleaning out the rooms on every subsequent release i wouldn't blame them or complain.
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 6 April 2017 18:31 (seven years ago) link
Man, this is my favorite BSP album since '05's Open Season. I'm almost never in agreement with "comeback" albums, though. I thought last year's Rogue Wave album was their best ever.
― Rod Steel (musicfanatic), Monday, 29 May 2017 00:12 (six years ago) link
cd80
lights our for darker skiesno luciferloving animalsapologies to insect lifecleaning out the roomsspring has springlike a honeycombinternational space stationhow will i ever find my way home?bearmongk IIit ended on an oily stageoh larson bwhen a warm wind blows through the grasscarriontrue adventures
― Roberto Spiralli, Friday, 16 June 2017 16:24 (six years ago) link
I've been a little cold on this band for years, so imagine my surprise when I found myself listening to their debut 2 or 3 three times today... 'Lately' in particular blew me away. I'm gonna give their other records another chance.
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Saturday, 22 July 2017 18:05 (six years ago) link
You're in for a treat, go chronologically to appreciate their development.
Meanwhile, their last couple of records are good but not great, haven't stuck in my head like previous albums.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 22 July 2017 20:43 (six years ago) link
"Lately" was the one that did it for me back when that record came out
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 23 July 2017 07:07 (six years ago) link
Well shit, Open Season is also hitting the spot!
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 07:20 (six years ago) link
Open Season is really good, DYLRM stumbles a bit (though it didn't deserve the Pitchfork joke review treatment it got)
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 13:02 (six years ago) link
DYLRM got a positive pfork review iirc. the bad ones were valhalla and machineries, both by ian cohen so
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 13:13 (six years ago) link
oh shit. nm. i remember now
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 13:14 (six years ago) link
"True Adventures" from Open Season is one of my all-time favorite album-closers.
― early rejecter, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 14:21 (six years ago) link
Yeah, 'True Adventures' rules... and I'll bet it sounds better in a live environment. I really need to see this band live.
Onto Do You Like Rock Music? ... it's a bit cleaner and feels more beefed-up/muscular compared to the previous two - I'm loving it, though!
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 18:47 (six years ago) link
Do You Like Rock Music? had a pretty strong effect on me - in a way the rest of their stuff just hasn't (chunks of Man of Arran aside). I still listen every few months. Need to revisit the earlier albums.
― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 18:56 (six years ago) link
Holy shit, 'We Close Our Eyes' is an incredible closer - these guys really know how to do epics.
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 19:23 (six years ago) link
Damn, I hadn't seen that Pitchfork review of "Valhalla Dancehall". They miss the point completely, it's exactly their attempt to "marry both their quirkier sensibilities and arena-level hooks" that makes it so compelling and downright fun! The "Zeus" mini-album is arguable even better.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 19:38 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDPS3u_DBw4
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 19:45 (six years ago) link
I really like 'Zeus'. "Cleaning Out The Rooms" might be my favourite BSP song.
― michaellambert, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 21:22 (six years ago) link
Of course that's on the album too. The other 'Zeus' track I love is "Bear".
― michaellambert, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 21:23 (six years ago) link
^ Their two best songs. I'm refusing to buy the new album unless anyone makes the claim that there is a song as good on there.
― djh, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 21:45 (six years ago) link
No one will make that claim.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 22:56 (six years ago) link
that's a cruelly high standard. and not really close.
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 23:00 (six years ago) link
Halfway through Valhalla Dancehall and I now officially love this band - nobody is as surprised about this as much as I am and I'm left wondering why this stuff didn't click with me before. Maybe it was just that I needed to hear the right song at the right time.
― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Tuesday, 25 July 2017 23:01 (six years ago) link
I haven't picked up the new album yet, the singles have sounded fine but 'Machineries of Joy' passed me by a little when it came out, I bought it but must have been to busy listening to other things to properly get into it.
― michaellambert, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 23:25 (six years ago) link
Maybe it was just that I needed to hear the right song at the right time.
I could list dozens of bands where that was true for me. I still revisit things to see if the intervening years of listening has changed my perceptions.
Back to BSP: they've got a large cache of non-lp material, much of which is worth hearing. This is my single favorite obscurity, though it's cheating a bit because the vocals are handled by Kateřina Winterová of Ecstasy of Saint Theresa:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHgpNZSxwPU
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 25 July 2017 23:27 (six years ago) link
There's an older version of that song with Hamilton on vocals that's just as Lovely.
IIRC it concerns the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.
― Millsner, Friday, 28 July 2017 08:04 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c_XaSrLzEM
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