British Sea Power "Open Season" (Rough Trade)
By Tim Den
Monday. Jun 13, 2:12 AM
Contradiction sounds great!

British Sea Power are a band of contradictions: a wildly turbulent live show set to music almost too pretty to call for such abandonment; all-too-pretty melodies presented in slightly dirty guitars and choppy rhythms… to use the “razor in candy apple” metaphor here would be cheap if it wasn’t so damn fitting. Open Season gives you hummable, nod-able tunes, but dilutes them with a feeling of nervous post-punk energy that’s rare in the “softer” British rock/pop bands. Idlewild kind of go for a similar effect, but they yield more of an anthemic, slick, stadium-sized aura than British Sea Power’s antsy, bug-eyed manic-ness. Not that Open Season is a picture of psychotic babbling and shaky hands: rather, like I mentioned earlier, it wraps pleasing songs in characteristically UN-pleasing elements to result in a contradictory – and delightfully so – album.

My faves? The rambunctious single “Please Stand Up,” opener “It Ended on an Oily Stage,” hook-a-rific “To Get to Sleep,” and most of all “The Land Beyond” (gotta love that gentle falsetto and soothing chorus!).
www.britishseapower.co.uk
www.roughtradeamerica.com

Click here to buy this album on iTunes!

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Tim Den

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