A fifth full album outing for ever-so-English anti-conformists, British Sea Power was always going to be something worth seeking out.
Following the band’s segue through the realm of film soundtrack and back again, the expert exponents of impenetrable oddness have returned with a rather well measured offering.
While the ideals of putting on gigs in less than regular surroundings, be they football clubs, barns or yacht clubs, have merit, the tedium does eventually kick in.
Theatrics have been to a certain extent, lost to the waves of streamlined business, but British Sea Power have pressed on. Armed with their obscure and slightly distracting stage sets usually consisting of unkempt shrubbery, they’ve ploughed on for a decade, standing beside, rather than with the hype of the “Indie” crowd.
Machineries Of Joy is very much an album of two halves, building from slow-fi to an almost silly jaunt. While they’ve levelled much of the usual tangents into a slightly less challenging listen than usual, the leans toward the breakout acts of the genre are all too clear.
Seeing the likes of Elbow rise so high was surely on the whiteboard for producer Dan Smith. The opening title track is strong in its Krautrock mess but the upward gear change toward the latter half of the album is the breaker. “What You Need The Most” spikes as overblown and unnecessary in its pomp while “Radio Goddard” and its clumsy horns is a cringe worthy reminder of why Roxy Music must remain in the ancient past.
Fortune would have it that the most pleasant of all the recordings is the closer, “When A Warm Wind Blows Through The Grass”. Its gentle guitars and drones would have been more welcome throughout what is a largely forced disappointment that may well signal the end of a once strong concept.
