Album Review: British Sea Power - Machineries Of Joy
- Written by Kenneth McMurtrie
Album number six from British Sea Power finds them referencing Ray Bradbury once more with the title (an act already committed by Die Krupps) so you get the idea that there's the usual dystopian fare in prospect.
In the event though things do not go quite that way. A celebration of the best aspects of the human race and its capacities is what we get in the opening title track of the album (the sort of thing the PM would probably view as a positive hangover from the sporting love-in of 2012); positive to the utmost you can't help but wonder if there's a Brave New World-like kick in the teeth coming along round the corner. 'K-Hole' certainly delivers an up to date and suitably adolescent thrashed out riposte to the sensitivities covered by the opener but on the other hand it feels unworthy of the band, at least as anything more than a single b-side.
'Hail Holy Queen' changes the speed of things yet again as it's a ballad-like number. Already there's an uneven nature to the album's flow. The band's 2011 albumValhalla Dancehall was much maligned, or at least under appreciated in many quarters, but is at least a very coherent work, the evidence of which is clear by three songs in. Machineries Of Joy, however, is back to being slow again by fifth song 'What You Need The Most'. Nowhere as yet has there been anything as clear a statement of dissatisfaction as "Sometimes I wish / Protesting was sexy on a Saturday night".
'Monsters Of Sunderland' thankfully picks up both the pace and the placard, although what's on it isn't all that clear. Beethoven's 3rd symphony get's mentioned a bit and there's the odd decent impression of a Makem accent. It nips along at a good rate either way. 'Radio Goddard' looks northwards once again with a bit of colliery brass band laced throughout its slightly dreamy length. Not losing your roots, possibly after being exposed to French cinema, seems to be the message, albeit that would be Godard so who knows.
Penultimate track 'A Light Above Descending' has some nice guitar work towards the end but by this point you might start to remember why you lost interest in the band after the first couple of albums. Ultimately though it depends what you expect from the work. Final song 'When A Warm Wind Blows Through The Grass' has an effectively haunting quality to it and is surely one of the best songs the band have ever come up with (you can imagine it as a real epic in a live setting) but overall the album's a disjointed sort of affair, possibly down to the process by which the tracks on it were chosen for inclusion (via some process of elimination after release on six eps at the band's Brighton club night) and therefore maybe not one that's going to see them do more than entartain already loyal fans.
Machineries Of Joy is released on April 01 and available from amazon