ALBUM: British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?

From orchestral introduction "All In It", straight from the songbook of The Arcade Fire, it's clear that British Sea Power haven't spent the last three years resting on their laurels for their third album. It soon becomes apparent that this will be par for the course.

From the anthemic probable single "Lights Out For Darker Skies" to the ballad of Bird Flu, "Canvey Island", whats good to see is how well these songs actually fit together. The coherence and consistency on show here is definitely what was lacking on their previous album, although this comes at the price of perhaps a lack of craziness when compared to Decline Of...

Instead, the album dips its toes into both and ends up with a sound almost retrospective of their career to date. The storming "No Lucifer" complete with Soccer AM chant wets the appetite to what should be another live BSP show, but that should not take away from the value of this work recorded.

For it seems BSP have been experimenting with a much more North American sound, ditching the "Post-punk" style of The Futureheads and moving onto a much more traditional Indie Rock sound, but still very much of their own style, in their own way. Still including obscure references to Football Teams and historical events, such as on lead single "Waving Flags", but now also with a slight post-rock feel. None of this is unsurprising with the involvement of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's Efrim Menuck, who reportedly worked with them in Montreal, as well as former Arcade Fire drummer Howard Bilerman.

And while the album has its more mellow moments, such as instrumental, almost post-rock track "The Great Skua", which serves as a rough interlude, and semi-acoustic "Open The Door", these tracks work much better next to the more frenetic moments than they did on Open Season.

The first interesting album of 2008 has certainly kicked it off to a great start, and while this album takes a little bit of getting used to, it has raised the bar somewhat for British Indie bands, that desperately need to up their games this year.