what pack of pretentious bastards.

to get worse :(

I'd rather listen to cherry blairon richard and judy than this song

thats what my sis just said she wants it turned off, butim only gona turn it off when the guitar comes in.

its well crunk

not up to much is it

what's with the horns? did they get ronson'd?

they are fucking so shit. awful song.

very disapointed

what does that even mean?

rest of the band apart from the drummer must be soooo bored.
keles vocals are even fucking programmed.
imagine this preformed live - lol.
but i do like it.

What a heap of shit.

It sounds like they've listened to Bjork's 'Volta' and raped it while it slept.

But I'm not sure what I've just heard.

I liked Flux and loved AWITC.

:(

Pretty rubbish. Not sure I like it at all. Trying to hard to sound different. Go back to angular guitar riffs lads, that where the future lies.

That link isn't leading anywhere productive. Any tips on where I can hear this?

But I'll assume it is shit.

Silent Alarm was, for the most part, a brilliant album. A breath of fresh air at the time. This, I think, was primarily due to the visceral energy it had which was - in no small part - down to Matt Tong's absolutely stellar drumming.

The focus wasn't on the lyrics (which were pretty oblique and meaningless) and this allowed the music to shine.

Then, for some reason, Kele decided he was the next Byron and started singing about foie gras and such like. This is where it all went wrong; when Kele's ego took over and Matt's drums were pushed so low in the mix. That is why I have listened to WITC maybe 7 or 8 times and probably never will again.

I actually didn't mind Flux - decent indie disco type of tune. But I suspect this new one is a piece of pap.

like they've taken it down.

W....T.....F is this shit?

Well, it's different...

I don't mind it...I really like the mad bit with crazy strings just before the break down actually.

EXCEPT

His voice does my tits in. What a wanker he sounds like.

No redeeming features whatsoever.

this modern love.

what happened?

this is the best thing they've ever done

Also kind of amazing because it's so mental and all over the place. I like the horns and grime-y vibe. Terrible chorus thing though.

when flux came out kele made a point of saying that their next album would sound nothing like flux and that it was more of a one off thing.

so, obviously that wasn't true.

they just need to stop making songs for the 'dancefloor' and go back to making the type of music they're quite obviously brilliant at doing.
im all up for a band developing their sound and whatnot.
but they just dont seem to be getting anywhere down their current route.
not for me anyway

when people talk about dated 00s production, they'll cite Bloc Party and Mark Ronson as examples. This is...despicable. I mean, Flux was alright after a few whiskeys, but this is...it's nothing, really.

intersting horns and noises, some of it sounds like it should be in heavily cgi'd action thriller though.

i dont like it.

I historically really dislike this band but this track is actually really fucking good - whodathoughit??

its a bit different.
Doubt the rest of the album will be anything like it though.

want to like this, but his voice sounds terrible!

I cant even see this getting played in clubs and the like, its just too...headache-y?

The bit where the other drums come in redeem it a bit, but yeh, first bloc party song i've ever had doubts about, which is a bit strange!

Mind you, I think Flux is by far and away the best thing they've ever done, first two albums did nothing for me.

http://blocparty.sandbag.uk.com/Store/DII-69-2-disc+set+and+membership.html

A "Mercury" discbox, eh?

Its not awesome but its an ok song. Its better than their usual stuff. They've always came across as a band with ambitions, but not the talent to match. When it starts with the vocals I thought it was horrible but by the time it finished I thought it was ok. Sounds like cross between Radiohead and TV on the Radio, but not as good as either.

baffling. I'm kinda leaning towards the "i like it" side though. 2 listens.

I've never been a fan of Bloc Party in the past as frankly I've found the majority of what they've done to be pretty bland and boring (though Pioneers is an amazing song) but the last couple of singles I've been impressed that they're trying to something different.

I quite liked Mercury on first listen. It's not gonna be to everyone's taste and ultimately any period of experimentation is going to have its patchy moments as you need to make mistakes in order to work out how to pgress but all in all I think it bodes well for the fact they're not gonna stand still and could well do some extremely interesting stuff in the future.

I just....I dunno, its just so all over the place and filled with half-baked ideas. It just doesn't feel like a song, let alone a good song.

I'm all for bands experimenting (indeed I encourage it!) but this just seems to be experimentation for experimentation's sake.

The Prayer... with the same drums and structure. Perhaps with a little Late of the Pier added in and some weird other stuff that wouldn't sound out of place on a Gwen Stefani track?

I thought, this is pretty cool, nice and loud and in your face, good good. Then, TWO MINUTES 44 SECONDS this disgusting mis-mash of crap comes through. Kele's voice sounds like tripe, eurggghhh. Que the "little high vocal bit" to try and bring it back, only for them to put in this ridiculous trumpet scaling. Ending in an absolute shambles.

I think if it was a minute shorter it would have been acceptable. Pretty fucking bland, but listenable and, dare i say, dancable. The ending almost made me sick.

retrograde = another man

my streaming was interrupted after 57 seconds and i couldn't get it back.

thank god, that was fucking awful.

mercury gets better after a few listens.
it will be terrible played live.
i hope to god that the new album will show a return to the 'so here we are' tunes.

mercury has been used as the in-between-album single because it will get people talking (publicity)

the new album will make me moist.

Fuck knows what Kele's on about but I dare you deny that this tune lacks groove. It's so much better than Flux, an obvious departure from their usual staple of guitar driven tracks but as some mentioned earlier I'm not sure if it will translate as a live performance but this is as good as anything off of a Weekend In The City. At least that's what I reckon feel free to dissmiss.

about 2 minutes in it's pretty awesome, but it does annoy me that kele probably thinks he's being subversive by making a song like this, when its just "4 minutes to save the world" with indie singing.
also, what is the rest of the band doing??

i thought it'd be terrible, but its not.
not as good as flux but then the radio edit of that was rubbish compared to the 12" mix so im hoping for more of the same with this.

it would be about 50 times better

It sounds like Kosheen.

This isn't a good thing.

The only reason people who usually like Bloc Party don't like it is they have rubbish taste in music.

I dont understand how people can like it? Surely anyone can spew out a song like that given 10 minutes.

... the cut-up vox on the choruses coupled with the evil sounding synth bass sounds pretty sweet, it's just a fucking shame I have to listen to the rest of the song to get to those parts.

Speaking to Lowe about 'Mercury', frontman Kele Okereke said: "It's a song we finished a little while ago that we're really proud of so we thought we'd let everyone hear it. I'm still somewhat in awe."

awe?

that it's utter toss. But then I'm not really adding much to the discussion.

It sounds like an April fool's joke record.

but it's grown on me. MUCH better than Flux, which still reminds me of Cher when listening to it. Also shows they're trying new stuff, which is never a bad thing, especially with a band of their profile, who could just keep churning out Silent Alarm again and again.

I rather like the horns and drums and synths.

then listen to it in the morning and chuck it across the room.

it's shite.

Judging by the turnout on this thread.

Haven't heard this new song, didn't like "weekend in the city"- much too whiny but "helicopter" makes them gods forever.

and i'm pretty surprised, having read all this first...

it has a great beat, matt is obviously all over it. the synth is brilliant. the horns work really well. and the vocals are as good as most bloc party vocals.

pshhh.

anyway, since the prayer everything they've done has grown on me. i hated it for a few weeks, now i like it. same with flux.

but they've obviously been listening to too much kid A.
the video is horrible though..

It's an odd thing to realise that the darker bits of 2008 dance-punk are really just an update on Massive Attack's Mezzanine."

Well, given Mezzanine's open primary influence was GO4/Pop Group/Slits dark dance-punk, not really.

but when they said 'this is the sound that we have always wanted to do' raises my concern.

I'll listen when I get home.

what the fuck are the rest of the band doing letting him get away with those lyrics!

wheres the bloody guitars?

kele's lyrics seem to be getting worse :/

I think I like it. Even though the robot voice reminds me of Rudebox.

More of this please

(and it has the added bonus of pissing off all the earless deadbeats who don't like music)

"MEH"

it's just not very good, it's kind of boring and annoying and it seems like they're trying too hard. Silent Alarm had little nuances in it, this is just....brash and dull

pretty funny non? Assuming it's meant to be funny. I laughed.

i think its good

Cue a heap more overreaction.

I think this is quite a good tune. The lyrics are rather irritating though. Woah betide them for trying something new. They were never going to match Silent Alarm, so why does everyone expect them to try?

File next to The Prayer. It'll do well.