Wednesday, January 27, 2010

35. A Weekend In the City – Bloc Party (2007)


As impressive as Silent Alarm was, I was instantly smitten with Bloc Party’s romantic side; the fraction to their style that spawned ‘Blue Light’ and ‘This Modern Love’. They were simple, often lyrically-empty songs that nonetheless owned my stereo thanks to their urgency. A Weekend In the City, while front-to-back my vote for strongest Bloc Party album, likely wouldn’t have made this Decade’s List without the sentimental emphasis which crowds the record’s back-end. From the hungover start of ‘Kreuzberg’ through the redemptive ‘SRXT’, A Weekend In the City is flawless, its romanticism fleshed-out into open swoons and fed with some of Kele Okereke’s most personal lyrics. Countered with more experimental tracks like the M83-indebted ‘Waiting For the 7.18’ and the electronic ‘On’, this sophomore remains the band’s emotional high-ground. Not even the odd clunky lyric about consumerism or mall-kids can bring this one down…

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