Do You Like Rock Music?, by British Sea Power

When does style become genre? At what point can somebody such as myself, who chooses to write about music, stop saying “such-and-such band plays music that sounds like . . .” and start instead saying “such-and-such band plays music of [x] genre”?

In a perfect world this question wouldn’t matter. Hell, even in our imperfect world it doesn’t really matter a jot. But over the last few days, as I’ve been listening to Do You Like Rock Music? by British Sea Power, it’s a question that’s been on my mind a little. (Incidentally, the reason why I’ve only had the option of listening to the album over the last few days, and not over the last month like my British colleague tommydski, is something which I could go on a long rant about, taking in swipes at the music industry and tales of rigid personal morality along the way, but in the interests of a brevity which I’ve promised to many people I’ll forego the opportunity for such a tangent here, tempting though it is).

Of course, one assumes that if British Sea Power had their way there would be no genres, only “Rock” and “Not Rock”. Which is probably a pretty good approach, but it doesn’t really help me talk about the sonic transition the band has made with this, their third album. Their previous two albums were undoubtedly rock music. So’s this one. What’s the difference?

So, genres then. I guess that in order to qualify as a full-blown genre, a particular style of music has to have a few conventions. Sweeping guitar lines. Yearning vocals. Strong, indomitable beats. Sudden dramatic moments where the guitars drop out for a few bars. Equally dramatic moments where the guitars return, stronger and heavier and more insistent than ever before. Songs that steadily build to an exhilarating climax. A pace that rarely lets up across the course of the entire album.

Do You Like Rock Music? has all of these in abundance. Put them all together and you have something that, for argument’s sake, we’ll call “Anthemic Rock”. Anthemic Rock’s been around for a long time. Like any genre it has bands that cover the full spectrum, from “good” to “bad”, depending on where your personal taste lies: U2 play Anthemic Rock. So does the Arcade Fire. So, now, do British Sea Power.

Music is a pretty manipulative art-form at the best of times, but even so, Anthemic Rock is a particularly manipulative musical genre. The whole point of Anthemic Rock is to tug at the guts of the listener: to instil in him or her a peculiar sense of yearning for something that can’t quite be defined. It’s a stirring feeling, but also a slightly queasy one if you stop to think about it too much (as is my wont). But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Anthemic Rock is the fact that, when you actually stop and listen to it, the lyrics are so often working at cross-purposes to the music: while the music of Anthemic Rock is, by definition, designed to be played loud, through speakers, and heard by large groups of people at the same time to create some kind of communal experience, the lyrics are often, in fact, about cutting off the listener from the rest of the world. Anthemic Rock typically comes with a kind of bunker mentality, which becomes all the more peculiar when experienced as part of a group: just look at any bunch of people shouting along to Rage Against the Machine’s exhortation of “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me”, or closing their eyes and keening as Win Butler sings about tunnelling away from your parents and from the rest of the world out the front of the Arcade Fire. Such lyrics are as much a part of Anthemic Rock as the soaring guitars or strident rhythms.

So perhaps it’s telling that, for the first time in their career, British Sea Power have furnished an album with liner notes that reproduce the lyrics of that album’s songs. Because if they’re now playing Anthemic Rock, they’re subverting the genre in a quite marvellous and wonderful way. It’s obvious right from the start: the very first words on the album are “We’re all in it”. What exactly it is that we’re “all in” is open to speculation, but it’s notable that there’s no oppositional force presented here: British Sea Power aren’t railing against anything, and they’re not invited the listeners too, either – except, perhaps, their own complacency: “We’re all in it” the band chants, “and we close our eyes”.

Elsewhere the band takes time to explicitly invite outsiders to the party: “Welcome in” Yan sings on “Waving Flags”, urging Eastern European immigrants to come into Britain, “cross the Carpathians”. If the rest of the lyrics of the song don’t exactly make the band’s homeland sound like paradise on earth, at least they don’t make it sound like an exclusive club reserved for the native-born, either.

But I’d hate to give anyone the impression that Do You Like Rock Music? is just a mindless love-in. British Sea Power have always been as intellectually curious as they are emotionally generous. Still, even when the topic of evil is broached on the album, it’s never presented as black-and-white. I can’t imagine many bands today daring to write a song as ambiguous about Nazism as “No Lucifer”, which manages to separate the ideology from the humans who embraced it (or whom it embraced), and then goes on to hint at both the idealism and the downright horror of the Second World War in only a few short lines.

For the majority of the album the band’s lyrics are a good deal more cryptic than that, though, and as with all of British Sea Power’s work they’re best listened to with an encyclopaedia within easy reach. But even this is a kind of generosity: I seriously doubt that British Sea Power expect all their listeners to understand or appreciate every single reference in their songs, but all the same the mere presence of all those references suggests that maybe we should understand them. A British Sea Power album leaves the listener wanting to read up about the world as albums by few other bands do, save perhaps the Mountain Goats. I think that can only be a good thing.

This lyrical approach has been a constant throughout British Sea Power’s career. The difference between the band “then” and the band “now” lies in the music. Before they started making “Anthemic Rock”, British Sea Power were making music that while it had a similar emotional pull, felt like a much more personal affair. Even the most exciting songs on The Decline of British Sea Power or Open Season feel intensely private when you listen to them, as if their power would somehow be diminished if anyone else was in the room. But that’s not the case on Do You Like Rock Music? This is an album that demands to be turned up loud, that practically pushes the windows and doors open of its own accord so that all your neighbours can share it with you.

At the end of the day it all comes back to the album’s title. It sounds horribly jokey and gimmicky until you actually listen to the album. After that, it seems like the only title that could possibly fit. If you like rock music you’re going to love Atom, track nine here (reproduced from last year’s Krankenhaus? E.P.), which is the best rock song you’re likely to hear in a long time. If you like rock music you’re going to love the whole album. How much you get out of it is going to depend heavily on how much you’re willing to put into it, but Do You Like Rock Music? is the sound of a band reaching out. It seems only fair to meet them half-way. It could even make the world a slightly better place.