Open Season

by

British Sea Power

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It's funny how people/critics will inevitably pan this album. BSP's debut "The Decline of BSP" was a noisy, post-punk thrash-fest, and it was excellent. Some fans expected Decline, Pt2... but got Open Season. Since expectations were not met, bad reviews will follow. The reality of it, though, is that BSP have crafted a wonderfully melodic (sometimes melancholic) sophomore album. All the hooks are memorable, and now that the distortion and angular noise has been stripped from the finished product, we are left with some of the most beautiful melodies released this year. Open Season is an angular verison of the Decemberist's "Picaresque". I say this because both albums convey the same feeling of being on a journey... they are wistful, nostalgic, but very present at the same time. Also, BSP seems to be forever compared to Bowie and the Pixies, and thats way off base. I'm sure that the guys listened to both bands, but the music is just UNLIKE either band. This is really one of the brightest gems released this year, and hopefully will remain that way for the rest of 2005.

The charge that albums shouldn't be compared to their predecessors is utterly absurd - it's absolutely natural. However, it would actually be quite unfair to say that Open Season is a massive departure from The Decline Of British Sea Power. Although there's nothing like "Apologies To Insect Life" or "Favours In The Beetroot Fields" or even anything as noisy as "Remember Me", the main themes are similar - nature, inner conflict, beauty, etc and musically the sound is still that distinctive fuzzy rush with the breathy voice on top for the majority. What is a fair charge is that "Open Season" just isn't of the same quality of "The Decline". It does have a fair bit going for it: the excellent "It Ended On An Oily Stage", powered by a plumetting bassline and a memorable tune, and the bouncy surefire single "Please Stand Up", which overcomes slightly muted production to explode into a bursting pop chorus imbued with melancholy and hope at once - a natural successor to "Carrion", perhaps.

Elsewhere there are certainly points of interest: "North Hanging Rock" starts folky and pastoral and builds into something that almost resembles Godspeed-esque post-rock; "How Will I Ever Find My Way Home?", featuring bassist Hamilton on vocals, is simultaneously innocently poppy and actually the loudest thing here, boasting not inconsiderable feedback, reminding of Sebadoh; "To Get To Sleep" features delay-laden, sparse guitar and crashing drums. But despite the sonic interest none of these tracks quite boast the quality of the first album. What's more tracks like "Be Gone", while decently constructed, are very much British Sea Power by numbers. Nothing on this album is bad; merely uncaptivating. The lyrics are still opaque, metaphorical and incredibly literary: nowhere else will you find "I love your irradescent sheen" the chosen phrase of endearment. That in itself is endearing, but there's nothing that does it quite as brilliantly as "Fear Of Drowning" or, in the end, "Carrion". So it's not that the formula is changed - not even that it's badly executed - merely that it can't quite produce the same goods again.