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"I note that the latest thread about this series (Sigur Ros) is currently fifth most viewed on Drowned In Sound. Interesting."

Everett True = ClicheGuevara?!?!

is made of words

I have conflicting emotions about Bloc Party. Yes, their most recent output is wildly inconsistent (although mostly not that good) but Silent Alarm has some great songs. It came out two weeks before Arcade Fire - Funeral and despite much preferring Funeral at release time, I'd much rather stick on Silent Alarm nowadays.

Also, their live set at Primavera in May was one of the most enjoyable live shows I've seen in ages.

But that was a deeply, deeply boring insignificant nothing of an article.

Honestly, the best you could do is "they're astonishingly mediocre". Aren't you supposed to be a music journalist? And a respected one at that?

Have you skills honestly decreased to the point all you're capable of doing is

a) Picking an obviously shit band.

b) Pointing out how shit they are in a really obvious way?

Come on man, surely you can do a little bit better than this?

For the love of God and the sake of your previous reputation please either retire gracefully or rediscover some spark and invention in your work?

Next week - Everett True on Scouting for Girls. "They probably aren't the world's best lyricists".

...or do I read it that Tom from Tigertrap suggested this one? Doesn't Adie know Bloc Party a little, or am I imagining it? FIGHT!

maybe you should try breaking out the 5 wood and really loosening those shoulders rather than tapping in on the green.

'Defending the indefensible: Coldplay' almost sounds like an Onion spoof of a music bloggers post - they get slammed even in Judd Apatow films for being a bit on the lightweight side. And I make a point of chipping away at Bloc Party as part of my morning routine.

Try Arcade Fire or Pixies if you actually want to try and raise a bit of blood pressure. Otherwise, see you next week for 'Defending The Indefensible: Hard-Fi'

but I would rather sever off one of my testicles with a pair of blunt scissors and run around the office with it on my head than read another one of your dull, predicatble, look at me taking on the sacred cow articles.

Jesus.

And you feel EVER so proud of yourself at how many hits your thread got didn't you? And you are probably ever so smug about all these replies too. Well done. You could post a thread saying 'all no-whites should be deported' and get a million replies but that wouldn't say anything massively great about you would it?

"Don't click on the link if you like Bloc Party. You'll only end up annoying yourself. This blog entry is for those among us who DON'T like Bloc Party."

Ah, nothing like preaching to the converted.

Is the answer: Toby Young, Paul Ross and Arthur Kade never met Courtney Love?

I'm just glad I encountered a taste maker journalist so that I could read that Coldplay, Sigur Ros and Bloc Party are a bit bland on a blog and internet message board. My mind is blown a little bit now, I'm going to have to make a brew. Anyone else want one?

'I'm just glad I encountered a taste maker journalist so that I could read that Coldplay, Sigur Ros and Bloc Party are a bit bland on a blog and internet message board'

high five jimi

"I'm just letting you guys know that I'm sorting my life out" on the social board has five times as many replies as the last thread in this series.

Internet achievements: there's a special olympics-related gag in the making here.

Bloc Party embody pretty much everything that’s wrong with so-called mainstream indie: the fact that they so overtly model their career path and musical ‘evolution’ on Radiohead; that their production is lent far more importance than the songs; their absolute and total lack of any sense of humour; the cold, soul-deprived, over-polished nature of their ‘art’… that they appear to value these character traits as ASSETS.

I saw them play at the Barfly before their debut album was released. I didn’t like their pompous, melodramatic, woe-is-me indie cabaret then and I like it even less now. Take the opening song of their awful second album: it piles in with a half-decent, if ultra-processed, guitar riff then immediately buckles under the weight of its meagre expectations, devolving into tuneless sonic mush after just a few seconds. The rest of the album doesn’t even come close.

And that’s before I even get to the world’s most overwrought third-form poetry masquerading as lyrics: “I order the foie gras and I eat it with complete disdain. Bubbles rise in champagne flutes, but when we kiss, I feel nothing.” I mean, Jesus! Swap the foie gras and bubbly for a burger and coke and Kele would be a great contender for the replacement Alice In Chains frontman. The less said about the “East London is a vampire” line (how very Smashing Pumpkins a soundbyte!), the better.

The majority of their lyrics are supposedly insightful glimpses into the vacuous nature of London/drugs/the music business (as if it were some sort of revelation) or snapshots of failed trysts so painfully awkward you’d imagine Kele must have been confined to his bedroom until his twenties. I defy anyone to wrestle any profundity (bar profound nausea) from lines such as “And our love could have soared over playgrounds and rooftops/Every park bench screams your name/I kept your tie”.

Listening to Bloc Party is the musical equivalent of all the bad parts and insecurity of having sex or getting high for the first time, but with none of the pay off.

They are the Ultravox of indie, only they’re way too self-conscious to write anything as brilliantly campy as ‘Vienna’ or ‘Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’, even by mistake.

I'm making a ham sandwhich to go with my brew now too.

What do you think the word 'defending' means?

I don't really play their most reason 2 much, but I remember them being enjoyable when I do. They're not nearly as good, but there is much worse.

I refuse to read these articles, looking at the comments.

Like, "I totally love this band 5: The Replacements" or something.

"KADE STYLE".

The old DiS-missives were much more amusing. If you're going to slag off a hugely popular band then try and put a bit more creative effort into it! One paragraph stating a band, not that well liked on this site, are crap. Well, there's incisive! For the record I quite liked their first two albums.

It's been stated before, but as a supposed legendary music journalist these little articles are poor in the extreme.

Also, I don't understand the title of them, Defending the Indefensible, you are in no way defending them, you are doing the exact opposite, or is that the 'clever' point?

I am aware this post has given your thread another reply, but I felt I needed to state my position!

but that settles it.. kick them all out

he's not defending them and they aren't indefensible.

'Slagging off the obvious targets' would be a better title

or

'Shooting fish in a barrel'

when you state your love for a band its easy to lose cool points if the band you love get too mainstream or popular or something. When you slag a band off, the cool points are there for the taking!

This guy's a twat; CG is not.

Your writing is shit. You just do that lame Charlie Brooker thing. At least Charlie Brooker co-wrote Nathan Barley. What have you done? Met Kurt Cobain and that's about it. Well done.

He has a hair lip too.

but anyone that says Bloc Party haven't written some top tunes can cock off.

it's not that bad really, not great or anything, but not bad, even if it is the same thing they've done before, it's still not as bad as some of the things they've done before, i mean even if it does rip off bands ripping off bands ripping off bands, it's still alright, which is more than can be said for people who think defending involves slating.

having said that, the lyrics are pretty annoying. but i like some of the songs a bit, i'd give it 5.96

I'll be honest though, I only gave it two spins when I bought it.
I will also try listening to intimacy again!

but still nowhere near silent alarm in quality

why don;t you at least make some reasonable arguments instead of a couple of paragraphs of nonsense followed by one brief case study of what is actually an ok song - certainly compared with that new song with the god awful piano riff all the way through. they may be on the rails now but they ade one of the best albums of the decade in silent alarm.

fail.

Bloc Party is persistent as hell.

Incredible.

this. i thought the idea would be that you hate bloc party but you write everything you like about them . .

or is it indiefensible. (oh my, ooh my)

How many doors have Bloc Party (and Franz Ferdinand before them) opened for mainstream indie? Yet someone on here has the audacity to claim they embody everything that's wrong about mainstream indie!!!!!!!!

So Bloc haven't pandered to their core fanbase by releasing Silent Alarm several times over. They may not always succeed (eeek that new one takes a bit of getting used to) but they remain a very positive influence in my eyes.

But the forum bullies don't like Bloc and do we ever know it.....

That's a good point about BP opening doors for other bands. It's very clear now: They should be executed.

running through my head as i woke up this morning?! Horrific start to the day.

ET would like them a lot more.

Like that's some sort of guarantee of quality writing... ;)

and total unanimity

hate brings people together. hate of a lousy hater.

You should have gone down the line of:

"So Bloc Party, the band that your parents think are playing a God awful racket. Cited as playing jerky, spazzy off-kilter post punk. No no no no NO!!!, they have as much jerkiness as the Humber Bridge. They play music for people who are claming to be on tele, the edgy, cool, off-the-wall kids in the local scene who were in it before the said scene started, but look like a yorkshire terrier at the RI Christmas Lectures when you ask them their thoughts on the new wolf eyes album."

I used to really like Bloc Party because of silent alarm as there were some pretty good songs but intimacy destroyed that. Yes, jimitheexploder I would like a brew and I wouldn't mind a ham sandwich to go with it ;-). Also agree with snowbakedsnowcave that, 'when you state your love for a band its easy to lose cool points if the band you love get too mainstream or popular or something. When you slag a band off, the cool points are there for the taking!' Lol I lost some cool points when I listened to intimacy, it's kinda crap when you reccommend a band and their album turns out to be well... kinda crap. But come on who isn't going to click on the link? 'You'll only annoy yourself' Oh dear! Annoyance is just the worst, ahhh the pain. Hope you can read my sarcasm. Though I dislike some of their new 'material' I still am fond of their earlier albums and still have enough good will built up for them to not turn against them and join the mob of Bloc Party haters here, hopefully they will prove me right. I can't afford to lose anymore cool points!

at least written more than 8 lines

was (and remains) bloody brilliant. I was so excited about that album coming out. It was fresh and exciting and full of songs. It's been erratic ever since - their love of DJing not gelling with their songwriting (nor some piss-poor remixes) - though there's been some great moments too, like Flux and The Prayer and some of those early Phones remixes - which suggest they might produce one more album of an even keel before they leave us. I hope so.