Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
HTML5 RADIO PLAYER PLUGIN WITH REAL VISUALIZER powered by Sodah Webdesign Dexheim
Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
  • Album & EP Reviews

British Sea Power – Let the Dancers Inherit the Party

  • Dork
  • March 27, 2017
Label:
Released:
Rating:

British Sea Power - Let the Dancers Inherit the Party

British Sea Power still haven’t made a bad album.

Label: Golden Chariot
Released: 31st March 2017
Rating: ★★★

Past masters of esoteric merchandise – tea, plasters, travel sweets, fudge – British Sea Power were always likely to deliver something different when crowdfunding their latest album. Sure enough, among super-deluxe editions, there was the chance for the devoted to get a BSP-designed tattoo – a kind of skin-worn season ticket guaranteeing lifetime entry to all BSP gigs, yours for just £1500. All five sold out.

It’s been four years – a long time in BSP’s world – since ‘Machineries of Joy’, their last studio album proper. While they hadn’t made a bad album yet, it suggested the band had found their eccentric furrow and would continue ploughing it. ‘Let The Dancers Inherit The Party’ doesn’t do much to suggest otherwise.

After a brief intro – piano plinks and atmospheric scrapes, looping around from the final track – ‘Bad Bohemian’ is a good start, anthemic and declamatory, with some of The Killers’ arena-ready oomph. And ‘International Space Station’ surfs boldly on ‘Telstar’ waves, radio crackle and weightless backing vocals. But the rather muted, aimless ‘What You’re Doing’ crash-lands, a little uninspired, and ‘Saint Jerome’ and the hungover plod of ‘Want to Be Free’ are equally unmemorable.

If it seems this singular act’s least interesting aspect – fond as they are of dressing stages with foliage and plastic herons, or sending nine-foot bears barrelling through crowds – is starting to be their music, there’s a pair of songs halfway that suggest the faithful are right to keep the band so close to their hearts (or skin). ‘Keep On Trying (Sechs Freunde)’ hangs its enthusiastic, comradely chorus around an urgent, poppy hook, while the lovely ‘Electrical Kittens’ is a stately, elegiac call for the kind of blitz spirit we might well need (“And we’ll all hold hands as the radio plays/say a little prayer for halcyon days”).

Starting strongly, the second half suffers from the same problems as the first, though, and the cracked optimism of ‘Don’t Let The Sun Get In The Way’ – laced with crystal shimmer and sweetly cooing vocals – only emphasises what’s flat about the final ‘Alone Piano’ – part ballad, part collage. They still haven’t made a bad one, but ‘Let The Dancers…’ worst offence might be that it’s just a British Sea Power album. Whether or not that’s enough probably depends on your level of investment. Rob Mesure

You May Also Like
View Post
  • Features

Fall Out Boy: “Going deep with people that care feels so much more important than going wide”

  • March 24, 2023
View Post
  • Features

Louis Tomlinson’s ‘All Of Those Voices’ is a love letter to the people who made his career what it is today – review

  • March 27, 2023
View Post
  • Music News

Bimini shares first music of 2023 with ‘Rodeo’

  • March 25, 2023
Latest issue
Latest
    • Music News
    Mae Stephens has released a video for ‘If We Ever Broke Up’ – watch
    • Music News
    Inhaler have dropped a video for ‘If You’re Gonna Break My Heart’ – watch
    • Music News
    Crawlers have shared a brand new single, ‘That Time Of Year Always’
    • Features
    Louis Tomlinson’s ‘All Of Those Voices’ is a love letter to the people who made his career what it is today – review
    • Live Reviews
    Fat Dog, Butch Kassidy and Cowboyy bring buzz and chaos to the latest Dork’s Night Out

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get pop nonsense to your inbox.

Dork
  • Contact
  • Jobs
  • Privacy
© 2016-2021 The Bunker Publishing Ltd

Input your search keywords and press Enter.