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British Sea Power: The Decline Of British Sea Power

Nick Southall, Stylus, 1 September 2003

WHAT IS THE POWER of the British sea? An odd thing, for sure. A five-piece from Brighton, guitars and keys and drums and voices and too much strange clean salt-air, pot-plants onstage with them, cheeky and irreverent but honest with it. "We ourselves may be loved only for a brief time...even so, that will suffice...there is a land for the living and there is a land for the dead..." are the words writ upon the cover. "British Sea Power's Classic.." A Gregorian-style chant gives way to a fingers-&-thumbs bassline, a clatter, a stiffed riff, a stabbing tempo, The Pixies, 'Apologies To Insect Life' indeed, indeed? A minute-and-a-bit burst that doesn't work.

Total word count of piece: 532

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