Of the UK's recent wave of indie hopefuls, British Sea Power has been one of the brightest newcomers. The band specializes in a kind of polarizing grandiosity more in line with American indie rock than many of their British contemporaries. Indeed, the rhetorical title of the Brighton band's third album presupposes the answer is yes, since fans already know rock is what they're going to get, albeit rock of a slightly less than predictable bent. A close comparison is the Arcade Fire (and all its respective influences), but British Sea Power's own personality is so dominant one could hardly consider the band a copycat. If anything, that outsized personality (and an attendant dedication to theatricality) has in the past occasionally gotten in the way of the songs. But on this album, the group strikes just the right balance with tracks like "Atom" and "Great Skua," songs that juggle chaos, beauty and catchiness with surprising ease and capability.

-- Joshua Klein