British Sea Power: Do You Like Rock Music?

Label: Rough Trade

The production by Arcade Fire’s Howard Bilerman, Efrim Menuck of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Graham Sutton (Bark Psychosis, Jarvis Cocker) gives BSP big, ear-filling walls of sound grander and more enveloping than anything Phil Spector ever conceived of. There’s plenty of contrasts, though – of dynamics, of timbres, of singer Yan’s various voices. Credit the band as well; its dark-burning intensity and energetic enthusiasm are exactly what makes this disc greater than the sum of its parts. The fact that their evolution over three albums and various EPs has avoided repetition will be mourned by some who want only the familiar, but refreshingly enables them to avoid sounding outdated. (Steve)