★★★★☆
It’s been ten years since British Sea Power announced their
arrival on the UK music scene with their sublimely titled debut The Decline of British Sea Power. During
that time, countless other bands spawned by the early-noughties school of
‘alternative/indie’ have either come and gone or simply betrayed their early
promise with a clattering ineptitude in the art of second-guessing the needs of
their audience (see the Kaiser Chiefs for more).
Thankfully, British Sea Power have managed to avoid such
pitfalls with consummate ease, quietly fine-tuning and developing their sound
with each new record; a truth, to which latest offering Machineries of Joy (2013) is absolutely testament.
While 2011’s Valhalla
Dancehall served up a fistful of gems that could sit quite comfortably
alongside the band’s very finest individual moments, Machineries of Joy serves as an altogether more cohesive collection
of songs. From the swelling beauty of its opening title track through to the
ever so slightly eerie three-note repetition of closer ‘When a Warm Wind Blows
Through the Grass’, the album touches upon pretty much every string on the
British Sea Power bow.
The explosive ‘K Hole’ hits like a sucker punch in the wake
of the titular lead single, while the swooning strings of the stirring ‘Hail
Holy Queen’ offers a subtle beauty to match that of Do You Like Rock Music’s (2008) ‘No Need to Cry’.
Elsewhere, the weird and wonderful ‘Loving Animals’ provides
Machineries of Joy’s finest moment. Leaping
from the blocks with raw, chugging guitars, one almost feels wrong-footed upon
the arrival of the chorus, which sees the guitars traded for gentle strings
alongside the ethereal refrain of “Loving animals, I want you to know that it’s
wrong man.” Make of that what you will.