Sea Power Everything Was Forever

In recent years, the world of Sea Power has seen the band trim “British” from their name in protest against post-Brexit nationalism, as well as pick up a 2020 BAFTA for video game soundtrack Disco Elysium. We can now add new LP Everything Was Forever – named after the book by Alexei Yurchak – to their portfolio.

"It's a message to appreciate and look after things more,” guitarist Martin Noble told Now Then. “Your loved ones. The eco-system. Your favourite shoes.” The band’s eighth album is nothing short of a triumph, showcasing the ever-expanding musical palette the six-piece has nurtured progressively over the years.

The haunting melody of 'Scaring At The Sky' kicks off with a breathy, restrained vocal in perfect symbiotic harmony with Noble's drips of tantalising guitar, while the driving beats of 'Transmitter' and 'Doppelganger' – surely future live favourites – draw on the band's rich legacy of rock wig-outs. Seventies-style guitar solos and stabbing organ anyone? You've got it.

Current single 'Folly' unashamedly combines disco-era Pet Shop Boys with explosive guitars, disguising the sardonic lyric, “You're losing the right to breath / You're losing the right to love”. Oh, there are Leviathans too. But it's on two key tracks that the band evidence their ability to weave aural tapestries that embrace their passion for elegiac composition.

Firstly 'Lakeland Echo', with its compellingly symphonic structure, paints a picture of simpler times, told through a surrealistic English prism. Secondly, there's stand-out track 'Fire Escape In The Sea', with a light-touch guitar refrain that seeps osmosis-like into the senses, invoking spectres of dark lakes and silent sorrow in empty boats.

After 22 years as a band, Sea Power have once more reinvented themselves with an album that explores new sensorial and pastoral pathways to brilliant effect. Masterful.