Do You Like Rock Music?

British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Critic Score
Based on 28 reviews
2008 Ratings: #19 / 806
Year End Rank: #36
User Score
Based on 55 ratings
2008 Rank: #123
Liked by 5 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
The Observer
BSP have every right to feel content. After all, the almost men of sylvan, jagged rock, the pride of Britain's bookish, bird-watching bohemia, have made an album that's deserving of their swagger. Do you like rock music? If not, here's the perfect place to start.
91
A.V. Club

While DYLRM? lacks the wild-eyed spits and howls of Decline Of British Sea Power, it's definitely BSP's most rocking effort yet, replacing the sterility that plagued its sophomore slump, Open Season, with stadium-sized bravado.

90
Drowned in Sound
Wired with a sense of opportunity, these little Caesars continue to play mother's favourite rather than the ostracised gurning recluses they initially cast themselves as.
90
God Is in the TV
British Sea Power may have decided to no longer drape themselves in greenery but they will definitely still be part of the scenery in best album lists of 2008 (Yes I know it's only January but "Do You Like Rock Music?" is an amazing album).
90
The Line of Best Fit

Do You Like Rock Music? is BSP’s most consistent, ambitious and downright marvelous album to date. It combines the raw edginess of their debut with the more polished production of Open Season. What we have here is, already, a contender for album of the year.

90
DIY
This could be the quintessential BSP album that leads them to brilliantine immortality.
90
Under the Radar

Rock Music goes further, showcasing a fully mature band turning out immense tracks that combine the best elements from their previous works.

90
No Ripcord
This is another huge step forward for a band not afraid to take them.
90
AllMusic

DYLRM should be a mess, but the band has crafted a wintry, nuanced, and bold collection of epic songs that integrate the sweeping theatricality of Arcade Fire-era indie rock without all of the insularity.

90
musicOMH

You can almost feel the wind and rain outside, and this adds to the mixture of melancholia and euphoria throughout, the latter realised most obviously on Waving Flags. And that's the spirit that runs through this fine album, staying with the listener long after the final stanzas of We Close Our Eyes bring it full circle.

83
Coke Machine Glow

Yan and Hamilton manage to capture old clichés in new ways and that, filtered through their weirdness and idiosyncrasies, the sentiments seem new (or at least more original).

83
Entertainment Weekly
Even as the band never quite achieves the transcendent moments of its influences, standouts like 'No Lucifer' and 'Waving Flags' touch real greatness.
82
Pitchfork

Do You Like Rock Music? doesn't fail miserably-- which at least might have been more interesting-- but disappoints gently.

80
Q Magazine
The result is an album that balances intellectual importance with the simple pleasures if great melodies played on meaty guitars.
80
Record Collector

While partially removed from the overly backwards-looking lyrics of yore …Rock Music? still captures that intangible essence of something lost and, as such, remains wholly affecting.

80
Sputnikmusic
Perhaps the first thematically coherent record from a band that continues to show incredible promise.
80
Tiny Mix Tapes
BSP aren't going for a concept album here (or concepts at all, really), but you'd be forgiven for expecting one given how beautifully the collection of songs coheres into a singular piece of work and retains momentum through its movements.
80
Paste
The band's third and possibly best full-length leans in a bit harder than usual, and dazzles throughout.
80
Alternative Press

A vivid, nostalgic traipse into what good rock bands ought to sound like.

80
The Guardian

Do You Like Rock Music? is the glorious sound of a unique band going for broke.

80
Mojo
Briitsh Sea Power's third album proves once again there's more to them than stuffed owls and a facination with odd geological landmarks.
70
Slant Magazine

For all the strength of the variously loud and soft moments throughout Do You Like Rock Music?, the record is at its best when the band attempts to holistically integrate the two.

70
NME

‘Do You Like Rock Music?’ might be fashionably rough around all the right edges, but there’s definitely still enough lyrical wit and musical beauty contained herein to warrant your attention. And, at times, your adoration.

70
SPIN

With guitars that ring and roar and percussion that gushes and thunders, they finally turn their lyrical peculiarities into a legitimate churn of ideas, rather than a posturing diversion.

60
Uncut

British Sea Power are still without a “Wake Up” or a “Float On” but Do You Like Rock Music? is exhilarating in its ambition, full of songs that will warm the cockles at whichever National Heritage site they choose to play next.

60
The Skinny
The enigmatic Brighton four-piece have regained their edge.
50
PopMatters

The greatest fault of Do You Like Rock Music? is that it is a statement album without a statement, only a response.

oakred
73

This is exactly what I was hoping for when starting Sea Power's discography. It sounds like the coast, it keeps energy throughout and never drags and is all round their strongest output so far. Between releasing Open Season and this the keyboards player was replaced and had gained their sixth member. With the full roster that has since never changed, they released this incredible hour long rock project which was both their most ambitious and enjoyable at the time.

The album sounds incredible. ... read more

homotom
100

I fuckkin love rock music.








But in all seriousness this is a brilliant album. A sweeping and strange sort of epic, spanning abstracted and cryptic tales of politics, history, heartbreak and soul. And for all the touting of it being a Stadium Rock album (don't get me started) it has something those other comparable groups don't. It has grit. Dirt. It's a weathered flag of an album that carries with it some incredible weight of drama and history. It reduces me to ... read more

gabeavocado
80

definitely a vibe. so glad i discovered this band, all thanks to disco elysium.

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