32. British Sea Power- Open Season



It's weird to listen to this sophomore album and to realise that on so many fronts it doesn't hold up to its predecessor, The Decline Of British Sea Power, yet, in all, it is the more satisfying effort. Decline boasted some classic rock singles in Remember Me and Fear Of Drowning and kept all its postpunk-Britpop essentials compacted in one exhilarating listen. Open Season disposes largely of the spiky rock and nestles somewhere halfway between Interpol and New Order (the basslines) with dashes of XTC (How Will I Ever Find My Way Home) and Lloyd Cole (the Britishness in the vocals). The calmer approach gives the songs less punch (well, how do you better Remember Me?) but a more compassionate, delicate quality. North Hanging Rock and True Adventures never would have made it on the first album because of their more fragile nature. Be Gone, It Ended On An Oily Stage and Oh Larsen B are well served without the heavy guitars and are great rocksongs with nice riffs. If The Decline has the potential of a sprinter, then Open Season is definitely the stayer of the two albums- different but in the end, lasting longer.