British Sea Power has changed their name to Sea Power so as to avoid misinterpretations of jingoism as that was not their intention upon choosing their name. In a press release they stated that they “all feel immensely fortunate to have grown up in these islands.” but the name change was due to the fact that “In recent times there’s been a rise in a certain kind of nationalism in this world – an isolationist, antagonistic nationalism that we don’t want to run any risk of being confused with”.
The band have also announced a new album ‘Everything Was Forever’ to be released on February 11th 2022 along with their latest single ‘Two Fingers’. They have been very quiet the last four years but now they have new music and the follow-up to their last album ‘Let The Dancers Inherit The Party’. Leading the news is their aforementioned single ‘Two Fingers’, a song that the band describes as having a “strong hopeful intent, a desire to start anew” amid contrasting observations about racism and the social fabric of the UK.
British Sea Power are back!
With a new name, a new album, and – crucially – a fantastic new song…
‘Two Fingers’ by the newly re-christened Sea Power is online now -https://t.co/lBr2JpAeKQ pic.twitter.com/apYrAJQMpl
— CLASH (@ClashMagazine) August 9, 2021
The co-frontman Yan Wilkinson who is accompanied by his brother Hamilton alongside Martin Noble and Matthew Wood said that “The song is part inspired by our late dad, he was always giving a two-fingered salute to people on the telly – a kind of old-fashioned drinking term, toasting people or events: ‘I’ll drink two fingers to that’, to some news item or to memories of a childhood friend”.
Wilkinson then went on to say “In the song it’s a toast to everyone, remembering those in our lives and those sadly no longer here and to making the world a better place. The song is ‘Fuck me, fuck you, fuck everything.’ But it’s also ‘Love me, love you, love everything’ – exultation in the darkness. If you say ‘fuck you’ in the right way, it really can be cathartic, a new start.”
He continued: “It’s maybe interesting that the song mentions nightmare monsters from the world of [writer] HP Lovecraft. This song has been around a little while, partly because of the big interruption of Covid. Between the song being written and the album being finished, the TV series Lovecraft Country was broadcast – which took the supernatural Lovecraft and ran it alongside 1950s America and Lovecraft’s racism”.
“[Lovecraft] was a terrible racist, a white supremacist, which is why his world is there in the song, like anti-matter – something full of horror and mankind at its worst. But, alongside the negative forces in the song, there’s also a strong hopeful intent, a desire to start anew. Beyond that, the track has influences that are just inspiring – David Lynch, Cold War Steve, the Sex Pistols, Joe Meek’s Telstar, the beauty of isolated landscapes.”
You can see the album cover art and the tracklisting below. Here is the pre-order link for the LP.
‘Everything Was Forever’ Tracklist:
01. ‘Scaring At The Sky’
02. ‘Transmitter’
03. ‘Two Fingers’
04. ‘Fire Escape In The Sea’
05. ‘Doppelgänger’
06. ‘Fear Eats The Soul’
07. ‘Folly’
08. ‘Green Goddess’
09. ‘Lakeland Echo’
10. ‘We Only Want To Make You Happy’
