Bloc Party
Banquet/Staying Fat

Bloc Party write pop songs. ‘Banquet’ is one of their most pop yet, and the first single they’ve released that anyone might actually be able to get hold of. Even more so as they go on, Kele is sounding more and more like Robert Smith.

Duel guitar riffs battle out in a simplified Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd way, the band’s tight as hell bass ‘n’ drums driving them along, while the deep “ommm” of the backing vocals echoes that of Blur’s ‘Top Man’. We knew they had it in them to produce something so simply brilliant as this, and they’ve delivered the goods.

Double A-side ‘Staying Fat’, on the other hand, is a furious punk song – the battling riffs replaced with battling vocals by Kele and Gordon. This is the mosh pit igniter to the dancefloor-filler of ‘Banquet’.

What a twin set of songs! What a life-affirming band.