British Sea Power
Remember Me

Despite the slightly grandiose, self-indulgent and frankly quite silly name, British Sea Power are actually quite fantastic. This, their first single proper, emphatically proves this point.

"Remember Me" has possibly the most urgent, compelling and darn right exciting opening to a record for ages. Almost a minute and a half of pounding drums, spiky guitars and seaside sound effects, and then the vocal enters. A swirling psychedelic, fury filled eruption of a song, "Remember Me" recalls Joy Division at their finest (wasn't that ALL the time, though?) and, of the current crop of Brit guitar noise makers, are most comparable to Clearlake.

"Remember Me" is an epic of an opus of a song, with scorching, dissatisfied guitars and the bizarrely named Yan's scowling, bronchial, Curtis-like lead vocal. And yet still the fragile beauty of the melody, and the charred emotion of the lyric remain clear. Gentle B-Side "Lovely Day" by the way, is even better.

It all adds up to one of the most refreshing, vital, cobweb clearing records of the year. Who knows? Maybe their IS something in this 'Guitar Britain' nonsense. If it produces records as good as this, here's hoping.