The Decline of British Sea Power

Mojo, June 2003
An album of stadium-sized melodies and exquisite song-writing. An album to move and intrigue. It seems the intense, intelligent, nonconformist listener has a new band to love. ****

The Guardian, 30 May 2003
This startlingly audacious debut is unlike anything you'll hear this year. Looking to the dark early 80s sounds of the Psychedlic Furs and Joy Division, the band's retro claustrophobia collides with very modern, utterly stinging confusion. Military drumrolls fight against keyboards, heavy guitars try to drown out electronica, and all the time the tension between lofty lyricism and posturing musical simplicty grows. British Sea Power will fight them on the beaches - and they might just win. ****

Independent on Sunday, 1 June 2003
BSP write songs that you can actually ponder over time - imagine that - and The Decline... will almost certainly be the only album this year to mention Scapa Flow and the Death's Head Hawk Moth. Their always poised, often epic rock oscillates between the frenzied and the elegiac. A strange and exhilarating record. ****

Daily Telegraph, 31 May 2003
Pin back yer lugholes, one of the most exciting albums of 2003 has arrived. Listening to The Decline of British Sea Power is a scalp-prickling, nape-tickling, ear-blistering experience. The tunes are beautiful, sad and wise. At times, it's reminiscent of Billy MacKenzie's Associates in the near hysterical fervour that runs through every song -a febrile, urgent madness which suggests time is running out, that if this stuff isn't somehow captured here and now, it will be gone forever. Mercifully, they've caught it, and here it is, in all its epic glory.

Q, June 2003
A stunning debut. From the Gregorian chants that pressage Men Together Today to Something Wicked's sub-Spector chimes and Carrion's Hunky Dory strut, unabashed whimsey merges seamlessly with melodious garage rock.****

NME, 31 May 2003
Carrion is the sound of a shipwrecked Echo and the Bunnymen navigating their way around your heart. Singer Yan uses his strange half-whisper to depict the lapping of ebbing tides while swirling back vocals get engulfed in raging waves of guitar. It's truly wonderous, the crowning moment of a frequently dazzling debut. They're out of place, out of time, and quite possibly out of their minds. But explore this record and you'll find they're also often out of this world. ****

The Independent, 31 May 2003
The term 'eccentric' ony scratches the surface of what BSP are about. Ploughing their own furrow with a wide selection of influences, this is highly angular art rock that rattles through blues, skiffle, punk, Bowie-esque manouevres and lots, lots more. ****

Bang, June 2003
A work of intense emotional resonance. British Sea Power have made an indelible mark on music's register. At a time when music is sounding more disposable than ever, that's a remarkable achievement. *****

All Music Guide, July 2003
With an unlikely blend of classicism and narrative, British Sea Power have composed a brilliant album that's nearly perfect. ****

The Fly, June 2003
Light up those cliff-top beacons - BSP might have signed up to see the world, but this incredible debut album makes it sound like they intend to rule it. ****

Playlouder, June 2003
It's the album they'd always promised us they'd make; consider The Decline... British Sea Power's entrance pass to the ranks of the truly almighty. ****

Time Out, 29 May 2003
BSP have taken an obvious fondness for Joy Division and Talking Heads and mixed it with a sharply-observed love of nature, literature and history, to craft a genuinely great album of artful, new wave rock.

Sleazenation, June 2003
Cobweb-clearing, synapse-tickling, gymnastic harmonies of uniform brilliance. British Sea Power are a band to dig like buried treasure.

Careless Talk Costs Lives, June 2003
It makes me want to run, to shout, to scream. if I died listening to this album, I'd go down with my fist in the air.

Do Something Pretty, May 2003
Very rarely does a record have the ability to touch your soul and take control of all emotion from delight to sorrow, anger to nostalgia. This truly is an untouchable debut from possibly the finest British band in decades.