- Artists:
- Bloc Party »
- Label:
- Wichita »
A not-so-secret fact about Bloc Party is that their name before was Union. The act of uniting two or more things, in this case a coming together of four individuals for a common good: the furthering of their musical desires. It was a name of positivity, and this feeling that anything is – was – achievable was carried over and into the band’s still-stunning debut album, Silent Alarm. The Bloc Party boys were a gang: front man Kele Okereke batted away questions about what was informing his lyrics – war, terror, love, fear? – by maintaining a veil of mystery. He answered questions with more questions, provoking debates above the relevance of his words. They were an embodiment of the amazing productivity of the ever-evolving British music scene, a fertile foursome rich in creativity and keen to progress for the country’s common good.
Click here to download a PDF of this article for printing and reading on the move
|
Now, here, the band sounds like they yearn for nothing more but a boat off this island.
A Weekend In The City’s title is no celebration of the plusses of living within the boundaries of a modern metropolis; if anything, it’d make more sense as A Weekend Away From The City, as the primary feeling that oozes from these eleven songs is an urge to escape. It’s an album featuring lyrics shocking in their frankness and honesty; it’s an album that pulls no proverbial punches in its tackling of the evils that haven’t the decency to remain in the shadows in 2007. It’s grey days turning into neon nights turning into drizzled-on dawns without a smile being cracked; it’s every euphoric rush of give-a-fuck felt by every twenty-something in the land distilled and delivered to a record label whose mask never slipped an inch. It’s coolness as ignorance, ignorance as a new cool, the exposing of a nation’s youth culture as nothing more than another cog of the machine driving us all into the bowels of whatever hell awaits.
Take ‘Uniform’, one of many songs on this long-player that could, conceivably, be part of the core syllabus of any sociology course in the UK only a few years from now (see also, in particular: ‘Where Is Home’). It dissects this country’s myriad of pre-teen cliques, each a million strong and spilling out of bedrooms into shopping centre food halls and cinema foyers: “MTV taught me how to sulk and love nothing, and how to grow my hair long”. It’s not rebellion, it’s conformity with an already worn-thin stereotype; it’s disaffection on demand, truancy with no direction nor purpose. The handful of kids on the corner, hoodie’d up, band-tee’d and sipping super-strength cider, they’re phantoms of what was once non-conformity. Okereke observes what each of us has a thousand times before; some of us have even walked the walk, only to bemoan the next generation for their insubordination. Only Okereke sets his words to some truly excellent arrangements.
It’s these that truly set A Weekend In The City apart from its predecessor: Okereke might be Bloc Party’s man out front, a giant smile flashing between sessions of impossible-to-read facial stillness, but Gordon Moakes, Russell Lissack and Matt Tong are a tight and dependable musical unit that’s afforded itself a substantial upgrade. Tong’s percussive skills have never been found wanting, but with production from Jacknife Lee songs like ‘Hunting For Witches’ and lead single ‘The Prayer’ are alive with bio-electrical energy, sizzling with super-charged drumstick logistics. At times the first-timer could be mistaken for thinking they’d inadvertently slipped a Saul Williams record into the stereo, so insistent are some of the beats that scamper around snap-tight guitar strings and Okereke’s acute outlining of each song’s subject matter.
Which brings us slap-thump back to that overwhelming feeling that settles awkwardly in the listener’s stomach come the five-tracks-in mark: A Weekend In The City is dominated by the conveyance of a man’s need to duck out of the glare of day-to-day everything. ‘Song For Clay (Disappear Here)’ may or may not have its roots in the Bret Easton Ellis novel Less Than Zero, but its lyrics can be interpreted in many a fashion. How can the song’s – the album’s – opening lines not be digested as an expression of a soul’s search for something more, most likely elsewhere: “I am trying to be heroic, in an age of modernity … But in my heart I am lukewarm, nothing really touches me.”
Whether we’re privy to Okereke’s personal disdain throughout, or that of a semi-fictional individual based upon the experiences of the band’s four constituent members, is rarely clear. ‘Song For Clay’ continues: “How we long for corruption in these golden years”, for something, anything, to upset the balance; to shift the power, to dislodge the complacency and habits of career’s lifespan. And just like that, we’re presented with it: a song apparently all about the pressures threatening to rupture our civil society.
‘Hunting For Witches’ is A Weekend In The City’s zenith so far as discussion points go – forget anything you’ve read about homosexual love songs, as a man’s expression of adoration is as sweetly affecting when directed at a member of the same sex as it is when sent fluttering to a woman’s heart, because this song’s stream-of-consciousness listing and loathing of the nation’s terror-makers is startling in its earnestness and emotional impact. “Fear will keep us all in place,” worries Okereke, shortly after chastising a certain daily tabloid for perpetually saying that “the enemy’s among us, taking our women and taking our jobs”. The solution: to go hunting for witches, to find those not-at-all responsible for, for example, “(the explosion) on the 30 bus”.
Article continues after advertisement
Sequencing is an essential ingredient of A Weekend In The City’s appeal: the flow of one song to the next is unmatched by any other release that’s passed these ears in 2007. Certain transitions are of a complimentary nature – the maintenance of tempo and mood from ‘Kreuzberg’ _to _‘I Still Remember’ for example – but those that jar are far more interesting. ‘Waiting For The 7.18’, an exercise in daydream escapism, clashes stylistically and lyrically against the oppressive ‘The Prayer’; the former ends with birdsong, Okereke seemingly managing to “go to Brighton on the weekend” (a line that won’t mean a great deal to non-Londoners, but that everyone within the city’s limits can relate to), only for the album’s airwave-riding curtain-raiser to open with drum blasts like gunshots. A state of serenity is shattered immediately – the desire for abandonment of the rigours that surround the week’s existence burst like a balloon and all parties involved are sent spiralling back to dim and dingy basements. Earlier Okereke states that “East London is a vampire, it sucks the joy right out of me”, and ‘The Prayer’ is a vivid telling of similar experiences, as well as a neat critique of (other?) bands’ need for ego-stroking.
The album’s second half is a calmer, steadier affair than the opening salvos focused upon above, and it’s characterised by a lyrical nostalgia for simpler times. Childhood and teenage love are themes explored, and realisations are reached: “I have realised, at 25, that something must change”. It’s almost as if A Weekend In The City is a tale told chronologically, in an entirely linear style: the doom and gloom of the record’s first four songs (‘Waiting For The 7.18’ may express a need for change, but no definite result is relayed) lifts and the album’s overall atmosphere lightens. Simultaneously, the battering-ram percussion dies down and songs allow their hooks to broaden and bathe in newly located starlight, an optimism previously obscured by personal demons. Some will say that this is a regressive step, and they might have a point –_ ‘I Still Remember’, while lyrically touching and suitably rose-tinted in its recalling of schoolboy memories, is the album’s least interesting song arrangement-wise – but the sunnier disposition evident in _A Weekend In The City’s latter stages serves to provide much-needed balance. Without this light, the epic blackness and gargantuan swathes of miserable self-reflection of the album’s first twenty minutes would consume the listener completely, rendering them unable to draw any positive parallels with their own existence from the experience.
Okereke’s lyrics, too, aren’t consistent; unlike the music about him, though, these deviations, however brief, are an irritation. But the naked honesty prevalent throughout his words does make up for any awkward expressions – perhaps, sometimes, the right words simply couldn’t be found. There’s a vulnerability to Bloc Party present here, chinks in their armour that weren’t readily noticeable on Silent Alarm. Whereas its predecessor revelled in its role as an album at the vanguard of a new school of British rock bands, A Weekend In The City twitches nervously for much of its running time; it’s never wholly confident in itself, and this uncertainty permeates even the heaviest beats and over-the-top solos (there are a couple, and while superfluous they do at least raise a smile). This is the work of a band in a state of evolution: it’s not the album with which Bloc Party will be most-fondly remembered, as that’s yet to come, but it will be seen as a vital step forward for a band that has the potential to become one of this country’s all-time greats. They’ve the technical ability – that was clear two or three years ago – and now they’re beginning to let their hearts into the process as well as their heads.
A Weekend In The City is the aural adaptation, a digital manifestation, of what it’s like to be a twenty-something in Britain, today. It’s dirty, dishevelled, unsure and paranoid; fearful, easily distracted, boisterous and ashamed; reckless, wild, nervous and terrified; graceful, thought-provoking, clumsy and contradictory. And it’s very nearly perfect.
Drop anchor.
- Latitude 2013 confirms Kraftwerk, Foals, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bloc Party + Spotify playlist
- Bloc Party - Four
- In Photos: Bloc Party @ HMV Ritz, Manchester
- Free Download: 'Killdozer' by Young Legionnaire
- Listen: Stream Wet Paint and Matthew Tong from Bloc Party RSD tracks
- Drowned in Sound celebrates 10 years with a 2-hour takeover of BBC 6Music
- 10 Today - Happy Birthday to DiS
- DiS meets Kele Okereke
Bloc Party
9/10?
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Pluses of this review:
Analysing its weaknesses as 'chinks in the armour', suggesting that such vulnerabilities are more endearing than worrying. Where is Home? is just one massive flaw, though, come on.
Yes, the social commentary is the kind've thing you'd expect people to be analysing on exam papers. Yes, this definitely won't be their defining album.
The big plus: more positive press = more sales. Bloc Party are necessary.
v.good review.
tis a real grower, going from "meh" to "essential" in about 5/6 plays.
love
the final paragraph
goodness me diver,
try not to jizz in their eye!
I am very bitter about this album
If I were to pick which album has soundtracked the past few years. It'd definitely be Silent Alarm. It seemed to tap into whatever a lot of people were feeling at the time. A need for a pop rock album that didn't sound retro? One that sounded it was made for now and took advantage of the amazing technology we have. Something that told all of us who still played guitars that you could make something with guitars and make it sound like this. I don't expect the band were aiming for that but that's the effect they had.
A Weekend In The City falls down on so so many levels.
The songs are too long. I've made the point before that the average song length is a minute longer than the ones on Silent Alarm. 4.41 or something.
The lyrics are mostly terrible. At best, some survive because of Keles impassioned delivery. "cocaine won't save you" "wild blackberries" "the Daily Mail says.." "let's drive to Brighton on the weekend" etc
At worst they so contrived they make me shudder "crosswords and Su-Doku" "age of modernity" "northern line is the loudest" "stamp on the face of every policeman" "like a castaway on a warm ocean" "you make my tongue loose" "second-generation blues" "rolled up 20s" "East London is a vampire".
The whole of "Uniform" - that song is my ENEMY. I feel nothing but physical anger for that track. It is the reason I am not going to buy this album.
This album could have been amazing. At the moment I am lucky enough to live quite high up in a building that faces out to a panoramic view of East London. At night, with the lit up tower blocks and street lamps it looks absolutely breathtaking. I also live less than a minute walk from where the number 30 bus blew up. I frequent the same type of clubs and venues where the lyrics for The Prayer, Uniform, Sunday and On were born. As a result I feel very much at the centre of what this album talks but I find the centre is empty and dull. London isn't that bad. People dress the same because they feel the same way. No, everyone is not unique. Its pretentious to think so. Community is a beautiful thing. People will always take drugs. People will always have jobs and it's nothing to be ashamed of or something to be sorry for. We can't all be rock stars....
woah that's long
....ermm.
This album is miserable
To an outsider nor in their 20's or living in London, it sounds empty and depressing.
Still the music's pretty good for the most part.
your mum.
^ that was for dobson.
why does this matter?
the band are doing the oldest trick in the writing book: writing about what they know.
they are in their 20s, and they do live in London. wouldn't it be fake to pretend otherwise?
nice review mike
i was having second thoughts about buying this, but i think i will now :o)
I didn't really intend it to be a ctiticism of sorts
More an observation that unlike Silent Alarm, the lyrics seem more restrictive to those within their demographic. It just means that to me - and this is a personal thing, it's a bit empty lyrically.
Of course you should write about what you know!
Quality
I have to agree with you again DiS.
Very near perfect. Only thing that I was disappointed by was by in Hunting For Withces mainly. All the talk Kele said about this being so much angrier...and listening to live demos where the song sounded awesome. I felt rather unsatisfied with the calmer (perhaps overproduced) HfW and changed lyrics.
P.S. I believe it is "THE TV taught me how to sulk and love nothing, and how to grow my hair long”...well at least it is to my leak. In the demos it was MTV and I must say I thought that sounded cooler.
I <3 SRXT
Jamie Oliver or Bloc Party?... Who to evict!
I think you have now sucked Bloc Party dry now. It's Arctic Monkeys and NME all over again.
Bloc Party are now officially the most over rated band ever. Oh and did I mention that they are shit!
frankly theprayerdeserves 10 the album is a 7 at most!!!
andmy stupid spacebarisshite
whoops!
Sounds like Bloc Party suffers from the Bono-Syndome!
i really cant see where youre coming from in saying the arrangements are good
silent alarm was made by its arrangements, (the guitar interplay, the daring of not using bass for ages at a time, the bass/drums, the quality and imagination of the drumming). it was all clear and clever and there.
this album is just a horrible grey mulch of nothingness. i've listened to it tens of times, and cant remember a single bassline. in fact: a list of things i can recall from this album:
most of Song For Clay (cos it rips of New Born so much)
all of The Prayer (cos its pretty fucking good)
the intro to hunting for witches cos of its cackhanded gimmickery
and that its really, really fuckin boring.
and the lyrics are embarassingly bad.
id give it 4 maybe.
As if
:-p
i thought
that made sense.
aww
named after a RATM song. how very 15-years-ago of you. you love the chili peppers too! nice. you are really great.
you should
really tell us your opinion of this album sometime. i've yet to see you do that.
i agree with this review
good work.
great review
but I disagree about the remarks concerning "I Still Remember" being the weakest song.
It provides a welcome contrast to the rest of the album and bounces along wonderfully with that 80s-infused guitar riff.
A good step forwards for Bloc Party. Easier on the ear than the first but may not stand out in 5/10 years as a great album which Silent Alarm will do.
Gah
the lyrics are absolutely dire. Especially as he seems to choose the worst lines as the ones he repeats over and over again.
and the music's pretty average too, every song seems to have a 'wacky' crunnnnk intro for two minutes before turning into yet another re-run of the helicopter riff.
.
I admire them for not making Silent Alarm 2 but this album falls down on a few points for me.
The drumming is really flat and repetitive. The production on most of the drums and especially the bass give it a sampled feel. Maybe that was the intention but i don't like it and feels like they're not fully utilising their best asset ie their drummer.
The lyrics are just too obvious to have as much impact as Kele clearly thinks they are. It all just feels like a moan at easy targets. The whole album just feels like one long moan. Fair enough if you want to tackle some serious issues but going on about how teens are a bit lazy and only live for the weekend etc is a bit too easy.
As for the songs themselves, I can't really comment yet as i've only listened a couple of times but they seem to have a bit more depth than those on Silent Alarm. There's nothing like Banquet or Helicopter which is fine but i would have liked something with more nasty punk snarl.
It's probably a 6 for me at the moment but it could go either way
piss off consensus boy.
I'd give it 9/10.
I also buck the Consensus
Was a very slow burner for me, but 4 or 5 listens and its definately an 8 or 8.5
I actually think the lyrics are great
just wait
it's at least a 9.
and when you people hear the finished version the strength of the songs will really hit home. just wait. i promise.
Biochemically/genetically
Each of us is unique actually... :P
Drowned in Sound =
gay for Bloc Party
These lyrics
At Les Trois Gar
we meet at precisely 9 o'clock.
I order the foie gras
and I eat it with complete disdain.
Bubbles rise in champagne flutes,
but when we kiss, I feel nothing.
.. reference Less Than Zero, not personal experience.
After listening to the leaked version, I'd say first half great. Second half not sure if I like it, from the sounds of it though needs a few listens to get into.
I haven't heard the album fully yet
I must be about the only person on this site who hasn't, BUT the songs I have heard make me think the same thing, i.e that it is a little 'London-centric'. Maybe 20-something centric too, but fuck it, we're the generation that matters right now, all those Late teens and 20-somethings out there are going to be the captains of industry and decision makers in the decades to come. If Bloc Party want to make an album that speaks to them of the fears and insecurities that the world has now, and will doubtlessly still have in years to come then more power to them. Maybe this album should become The UKs very own little red book, but of course, I'd have to hear it fully first.
*
im so glad this got such a brilliant review.
every opinion ive heard of this album just slates it in comparison to silent alarm.
its really refreshing to see a review of the album for what it is.
and one that doesn't compare it negatively to the bands previous efforts.
I totally disagree that this album is any good at all
That's the beauty of individual opinion forming though I guess, and adds precious little to this debate.
But the lyrics...
the LYRICS!!!!
i'm... i... they're... grrrrr
i'm off to listen to FOTLeft for the 34th time today...
I didn't like "Silent Alarm" much either on reflection
I jumped on that bandwagon far too quickly. Still, it did give us a few shit hot MSTRKRFT and Phones remixes...
LOL
Gash.
I just DO NOT
get what is so special about this fucking band!
Its uninspiring cod indie tripe.
Its not even understated - its just boring.
DiS sucks
you guys have ZERO credibility
especially after this review. ridiculous
it's just NOT a great album.
Also..
I am a massive fan of the works of Brett Easton Ellis and I hate to see his work interpreted by a band so fucking tepid.
Less than Zero is about LOS FUCKING ANGELIS in the EIGHTIES too not London in the noughties.
There are no clever parallels to be made here, they are just referencing Ellis becasue they want to be thought of as intellectual and deep.
Arty wankers.
Nope, I gave it a chance.
I got about of a third of the way through before I had to turn it off.
haha,
Just noticed their is a bit in the middle of all of that which states
"article continues after advertisment"
- but no advertisment!
But then again, thats what that whole article is, really.
Wonder what sort of perk Wichita are offering Diver and DiS?
LOL LOL LMAO LOL
etc
Is that becuz..
..you iz rolling in pile of money innit.
You seriously think its that good?
Apart from
Identical Twins of course, but even they become unique once environmental factors have their way... anyway, I'm rambling...
Piles of money?
Have you seen our office?
Piles of DUST.
dis increasingly =nme
which is a shame as i come on here to read unbiased reviews without the influence of advertising revenue/pals in the industry etc. oh and can someone else please write an album about what its like to live in modern day london because not enough people are doing it....
he's got a point though
the second tower did look like it was blown up from the inside
Haven't read it,
but I could see the 9 coming a mile away.
DiS is never going to slag Boring Party.
the influence of revenue/pals?
what the f'?
I've never met Bloc Party (unless pished... which may have happened). They're not my friends. I have a professional relationship with the label and wouldn't rate something highly just because it was on Wichita. Check out the 5/10 review of the last Bronx album. I didn't expect to enjoy this record as much as I did, if I'm being perfectly honest. It grew on me over a dozen listens. Some won't give it that much time to impress. Maybe they should.
Can someone really write over 1,600 words on an album without being honest about it? Really? If this was NME, or whatever, and this was a tiny little review full of praise with no basis, and the band had their faces in ads all over the magazine, then maybe you'd have a point.
Where are Bloc Party advertised here? Wichita? That Blood Brothers tour? It's a DiS-sponsored tour. We'd have wanted to do it whatever label the band was on.
Alright, point taken..
I'm not seriously suggesting your hands are in the pockets of record companies like some of your print based counterparts BUT DiS's unwavering loyalty to any band is pretty suspicous.
But on balance the same could be said of your support for Arcade Fire and I as a huge fan I'd hardly knock you for that.
Bloc Party are still bobbins tho!
there's no unwavering loyalty to any band here...
...we try to send records to people we think will like them, mostly.
Like any magazine does.
It's better for business to be positive, isn't it?
We're clearly not always going to give Bloc Party a good review, as this proves:
You grumpy bumholes
I think this is a brilliant review.
Get over what you thought the next Bloc Party album should sound like (or for some reason your hatred of the band) and perhaps you just might find a gem right here.
Yawn..
more like.
I am listening to The
Fall. Mark E Smith v Kele Okereke. Not a hard one. If you'll pardon the expression.
Didn't realise this review was up yet...
But the rating pleases me. Can't wait to hear it.
Also - why reviewing albums so early?
seriously
this record is a 9 if you compare it against be here now, otherwise how much did their label pay you ?
how pathetic
and lame and unknowledgable is it to claim that m.diver was 'paid' by a label like wichita, just because the rating's good. surely the length and depth of the review (the longest ive seen on the site) shows how he had obviously actually considered his opinion. unlike you.
^^^
Wow. How ignorant. Bloc Party is just okay and I can't stand panic...I won't finish the name.
Silent Alarm is way overrated. Although I do like the bits that sound much like what Blur has done a time or two before. And don't say you can't hear the Blur influences.
Still, I'll try this album before I come to any conclusions on the band.
Not sure
exactly why I'm posting this as I may as well be shouting "Arsenal suck" in my local on a match night, but to me this is everything that's wrong with British indie music: self-pitying, joyless, white boy indie schlock devoid of any purpose except for lonely chinstroking kids to touch themselves over (and yes, it is ironic their singer fits that description better than pretty much any white indie singer I can think of).
The lyrics could have been written by a teenage emo band. I can't stand all this whining - at least get angry or offer a solution or what's the point. Sorry to everyone that likes this - maybe I'll see you in America when I finally lose my last ounce of patience, where at least bands have the courtesy to look up from their shoes once in awhile.
LOL?
LOL!
over exposed
but it is their fault for being over exposed early on. you don't have to have your face splattered all over the place or do soul searching interviews with the observer sunday supplement. you just say one little word -'no'. fair play to mike for explaining his position but there does seem to have been 1 or 2 suspicious reviews on here lately of which this was the most blatent. hopefully DIS will prove me wrong and continue to support the smaller bands that don't have the major label clout as well as those with the cash to throw around
.
tom edwards speaks the truth
Agreed with Tom
If your going to whine, at least have some kind of charm or indeed lyrical talent to make it less of a chore to listen to.
Kele's voice is practically monotone, his lyrics are either borrowed from literature he surely doesn't respect or like the sixth form back page scribblings.
Anyone outside of Laahhnndannn actually like this album?
A fair review
I for one love this album, and now DiS for appreciating this album in a similar manner . Mr Diver, i think you've mostly hit the nail on the head . One thing though, the vulnerability and "irritation" in the lyrics are to me a plus point more than anything (in refusing to 'uniform themsleves' for want of a better phrase) and 'I Still Remember' obviously has a simpler arrangement in comparison to other songs but that is also part of its beauty , its an anti-pop pop song constructed with that in mind. Kele said himself, "When was the last time you heard an interesting pop song that actually tried to give you a different perspective on desire?".
The bloc doubters used to frustrate me on this website, now they just make me laugh.
Sorry. Let me rephrase that.
Anyone outside of London and/or over the age of 25 actually like this album?
you're really quite angry about Bloc Party, aren't you.
Perhaps you should have a cup of tea or something.
I am
from Enfield, which used to be technically outside of LDN(but living in Islington now), 27yo and this album does nothing for me. Musically, it is rather poor and not as fresh as SA, and I have to agree the lyrics are pretty standard indie fare, plus, moaning about people who wear "uniforms" could hardly be considered a short sociology essay on the current state of the nation - we've practically had millions of bands singing about these things - how people dress up, wear a tie, how youths follow the latest MTV trends without any kind of personality and so on. Not that indie bands aren't short on "uniforms" themselves - I can foresee Kele riding the shelves of Urban Outfitters, Oxford St branch - how London-centric......
And yes, it is more London-centric than a Suede b side....I've never really liked bands who stick too much to their geographical roots - whats next? How to avoid Blackwall Tunnel rush hour traffic jams? And he's a scouser, btw....
stand by my opinion
the lyrics ruin the record and it does not have the urgency the debut did. east london is a vampire it sucks the life out of me. that could of been written by a teenage goth from middle america. what garbage its up there with i can see a liar sitting by the fire. listen to the good the bad and the queen a far superior record.
Age seems important
I've just read all the comments above and it definitely seems as though age has a bearing on your enjoyment of this album. I'm 22, a student, and have just moved to London to live and work for a year on placement. I love this album but its probably because it strikes a chord with my experiences over the past 6 months living in the city. This paragraph neatly sums it up for me:
"A Weekend In The City is the aural adaptation, a digital manifestation, of what it’s like to be a twenty-something in Britain, today. It’s dirty, dishevelled, unsure and paranoid; fearful, easily distracted, boisterous and ashamed; reckless, wild, nervous and terrified; graceful, thought-provoking, clumsy and contradictory. And it’s very nearly perfect."
PS. if you slag this album off because you think it's depressing indie bollocks for emo kids, then you really need to broaden your mind. Also, the reviewer obviously wouldn't have written a personal, thoroughly considered review like that because he likes sucking up to BP's label. Cheers for the good read DiS. 8 or 9 out of 10 from me.
Uhm...
I don't think it is just negativity - I think most of us are upset because we actually liked BP in the first place. I don't really care about lyrics, age, London or whatever, although drug taking and trend obsessions are really neverending clichees but... of course I'm going to pop over to some other bands who deserve more attention, it doesn't mean I can't express my opinion on the current state of the BlocNation.
"East London is a vampire, it sucks the life out of me".........Catatonia, anyone?
Um.
Ew.
Awful lyrics.
Melodies recycled (in almost every song).
Boring.
Boring.
Boring.
Bloc Party were exciting once and I liked them a lot.
What happened?
This album
is bloomin brilliant. Its a social commentary. Sure there are songs that deal with topics that arnt all sunshine and lillipops. i still remember is full of hope and sunday is a song about being with someone you love. not all depressing. and Dissapear Here is about a character Clay from the book less than zero, read it.
LOL!
that's disgusting
this is absolutely shit.
boring as hell, pretentious and cringeworthy. 6/10. i've listened to it three times and am now going to delete all record of it and never listen to it again.
Checking the ages of these posters
I think the 25 year old rule is quite a good one.
Thing is I really WANT to like this band and probably would have done ten years ago.
I think that I have just missed a lot of what makes Bloc Party exiting.
ahem
exciting!
my chemical romance
anyone?
You're my hero diver
This album gets too much stick. It's beautiful, haunting and ethereal. They showed the way heading they were with compliments and plans tacked on the end of the last album, and I couldn't be gladder that they actually followed it through with a whole album. Utterly brilliant and breathtaking is my take on this.
the sentiment is appreciated
and nice, but the execution seems a little off to me
i agree with
the two people above ^^ I was slightly disappointed too at first, but it's grown on me the more I listen to it and I now regard it as one of the best albums I own. It perfectly achieves the band's aim of documenting city life, and I reckon they'll go on to bigger and better things with album #3
In awe of this
I think like a lot of people will this album can obviously sound a bit disapointing after the first listen there doesn't seem to be any realy big tunes as on silent alarm.
However after listenin to it several times.. it all suddenly clicks and you realise how amazing and wonderful it is.
Love it. Love Bloc Party. Astoria friday.woop
Respect to you...
I agree with all of that, except I just cannot get into the band!
Is "My Stupid Spacebar" ...
a b-side or unrealeased rarity??
Oh c'mon dude...
Maybe Kele finds some resonance between that Ellis quote and his life now - it doesn't have to be taken literally.
Again.......
You're all trying to justify the sheer fact that BP released a disappointing product. I'm sure most of us have heard it to death, but, of course, it makes you expecially angry when a band you once loved come up with something so cringeworthy - and I don't really feel they're actually doing something new. SA was spiky and edgy, while this sounds like a sea of minor chords and tempo changes without a proper tune. No amount of literaly references or Berlin suburbs in their songs can save 'em.
1 good thing about this...
...it's better than the View's album, but still a load of crap!
Plop Party
I think if anybody took the time
to actually think about the album, and its inherent message, and the brutal honesty of the lyrics, instead of hiding behind a pretension that has been built around disproving the hype, they would realise that a weekend in the city is without a doubt a masterpice, which has been geniusly out together to create essentially a concept album. I don't think it is a groundbreaking album by any means, but taking into account the essence and potential of the album, it would be ridiculous to write the album off.
so i finally got around to listen to this album...
And after reading about bloc party's Bono-syndrome (let's save the world by making an album and make a bit of cash while doing it + free Pr, yeah), I was genuinely curious to listen to this Cd.
Would it be what some people said more Coldplay meets Radiohead or even more U2ish? Well just after a couple of tracks I got it, this is Snow patrol! And that makes perfect sense with all the split comments on the album, because no one knows if Snow patrol is cool or not! When you’re 10 years old it was ok to listen them but then when you turned 11, suddenly you would get your ass kicked if any one new you had the album!
Hmm...
Like the album I got bored half way through this reveiw (sorry Mike). But I have been told by so many people that 'A weekend in the city' deserves many listenes as its a grower. I will continue to listen and to read.
I am however a little disappointed as Silent Alarm and The Prayer were mighty and I've yet to be convinced with the new album.
i love the fact that bloc party are so divisive
this album is utterly amazing, by the way. more thoughts soon, once i can order them properly...
9/10
more like a 10/10
They are so divisive
cos the album's half good, I presume.
sixth form band?
That's absurd.
A band at my sixth form is called 'Festering Leper'.
Case closed.
The album
is excellent - I'm stunned that some of the DiS regulars are slating it. Possibly album of the year...
6th listen
and I'm there... to think I even doubted em. The astoundingly brilliant triple whammy of 'Uniform', 'On' and 'Where Is Home?' makes up for the slightly disappointing softer tracks in the second half.
It's not as good as Silent Alarm (which was as close to a perfect album as I've heard) but I can't hold that against it, how many bands do 2 albums as good as these two?
It's brilliant and I love it to bits already,
whereas it was aaaages before I finally got my head round Silent Alarm. I'm far too tired to say why I think it's the best album of 2007 already and probably won't, for me, be beaten, so I'll just say that completely the opposite of what RW12 said is the truth, the Jewson truth, and nothing but the truth. They've grown a massive pair of bollocks, trimmed all the fat from their songs (how perfect is Hunting For Witches?) and somehow managed to go widescreen without doing a Coldplay. And SRXT is one of the saddest songs I've ever, ever heard and if you feel nothing listening to it, you're probably dead.
So Bloc Party are the new Radiohead that aren't total cunts, and can write a decent tune. Hooray!
armchair dancefloor 39: Mount Kimbie interview, Bobby Browser, Powell, Move D, Leon Vynehall...
DiS meets John Lydon - Part 1: The Man
DiS Does Singles 20.05.13: Paramore, Laura Marling, The Replacements
DiS joins the Music Alliance Pact + May 2013's global MAP compilation
Drowned in Bristol #12
DiS Does Singles 13.05.13: Swim Deep, These New Puritans, The National
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
SoundCloud
MySpace
Friendster
RSS
Comments
- Post a new comment on this article