Over Here, Over There, Every-fucking-Where

First mentioned back at the start of Feb, what follows is the review proper for...

British Sea Power - Valhalla Dancehall (Rough Trade, 2011)

 Once, it seemed that British Sea Power were content to forever circle the edges of full-blown, mainstream popularity, favouring instead to blossom as one of Britain’s mid-tier indie bands. That all changed with 2008’s Do You Like Rock Music? a concerted tilt at leaner cuts with more focused energy, leading many answering the title’s question with a resounding ‘Yes!’

It did however ruffle the delicate sensibilities of your average BSP fan, reared on their musical meanderings, and not their anthems. The group’s fifth album seems to curtail these issues by diving in both directions. While the opening Who’s In Control? appears custom-built for the live setting (complete with placemarkers for the crowd’s cheers), the following We Are Sound charts a similar upbeat rock edge, but with subtler formations.

Valhalla Dancehall has all the rough flexibility of a transition record, and much like its evocative title is characterised by its contrasts. The splayed grace of Georgie Ray’s tranquil piano and relaxed guitar is chased with the aggressive post-punk repetition of Stunde Null. There’s equally meaningful juxtaposition in the dramatic, and lengthy, Cleaning Out The Rooms, which is immediately followed by the visceral minute-and-a-half burst of Thin Black Sail.

They’re more relaxed in general, particularly with their influences. Luna is nothing if not a long lost Pulp record, with lead vocalist Hamilton channelling his inner Jarvis Cocker; from the forlorn baritone right down to the line “we all laughed but we also felt quite sad” pronounced ‘laff. And even though they’re separated by the wonderfully lilting Baby , Everything Is So Easy is informed by the same dry wit – skewering contemporary comforts with its economic chorus of “shopping is so easy/dying is so easy/all of it is easy.”

Certainly the album could have trimmed some of the fat, Mongk II being first on the chopping block, and the closing Heavy Water is serviceable, but after the sleepy-eyed nocturnal drift of the eleven minute plus Once More Now, it seems positively unceremonious.

These are minor concerns in the larger equation though, as Valhalla Dancehall capitalises on the band’s rising momentum. One that reconciles their independent, bookish leanings with tunes brimming with stadium-baiting grandeur. That circling of the mainstream now looks in retrospect like a predator who was sizing up its prey. 

British Sea Power - Living Is So Easy

British Sea Power - Who's In Control? 

British Sea Power - Luna