Four - Bloc Party

Four

Bloc Party

Frenchkiss Records.

SCQ Rating: 75%

“There was a sense of disappointment as we left the mall / All the young people looked the same,” Kele Okereke intoned on A Weekend In the City's centerpiece, and it’s a lyric I’ve never comfortably moved beyond. Delivered as one of many rites of passage for that excellent sophomore record, it’s an epiphany that nevertheless sounded naïve or, at least, most likely to resonate among those same self-conscious mall-loiterers. And aptly, many fans of Silent Alarm’s angular ferocity felt letdown by a burgeoning emotive scale that elbowed Bloc Party, lyrically and sonically, toward the mainstream.

That perceived turning point, beginning with A Weekend In the City and continuing on the electronic-minded Intimacy, seesaws more violently than ever between evolution and regression with Four. Example: following the back-to-basics dynamic of love-song “Real Talk” (evolution, check), Okereke adlibs a bad pun about holding a turkey breast while singing as a means of “keeping abreast of the situation” (regression, check). Granted, nothing else on Four approaches that regrettable spike, with most of Bloc Party’s impulses choosing to engage heavier material that will nevertheless deepen the fanbase divide. The disappointed half responsible for calls of “emo” in recent years will find fresh evidence on “Kettling”, a track barely disguising its Weezer circa Pinkerton ambitions, whereas most fans will stand bewildered by “Coliseum”’s promising blues being buried by metal-aping riffs. While Okereke's voice has probably never sounded better than it does on Four, drummer Matt Tong's gutteral screaming feels like an awkward step outside of the group's comfort zone.

Bloc Party’s two primary strengths – immaculate rhythm and pitch-perfect atmospherics – have always worked best en masse. Even 2007's “Where Is Home?”, arguably the band’s angriest track, wouldn’t have sounded so immersive without a layer of dreaminess underpinning it all. And Four delivers a handful of tracks that live up to that reputation, from tenderly off-kilter ballad “The Healing” and the hypnotic lushness of “Day Four” to “Team A”’s thunderous, effect-laden menacing. Navigating the record’s snarling terrain can be perilous – tracks like “3 x 3” and “We Are Not Good People” seem to be designed solely for speaker-shaking volume – but a solid pop song like “V.A.L.I.S.” usually waits around the corner. 

“Can’t shake the feeling we’re moving backwards,” Okereke shrugs on “Coliseum” but I remain a neutral fan, commending Bloc Party for testing the raw edge of their capabilities even though it presents a less flattering showcase of their talents. Four isn’t a full-on regression but it’s a far cry from their best work.

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…

Intimacy - Bloc Party

Intimacy

Bloc Party
Wichita Records.

SCQ Rating: 80%

Big beat percussion, siren-loud guitar squeals; feel the wrath of 'Ares', both the God of war as well as opening track to the dropped-like-a-bomb new Bloc Party record. Once heard, that feels a bit like an understatement; surely there are bombs that have taken longer to get the go-ahead than Intimacy, as the band gave a mere three day warning call. I'd further wager there are bombs less explosive than this eleven-song cycle, which features the ten original songs first released in late August, plus the new single 'Talons' unveiled last week.

Of course, a release method in the vein of Radiohead or Reznor can easily overshadow the actual record; the shock and awe technique of announcing it so imminently affords little time for hype or expectation, while the first listen incorporates all the excitement we held before internet leaks and blogs like this one ruined those precious record-release calendar days. The boldness of their progressive strategy feels echoed in 'Ares', brash and careless what bands it stands on the shoulders of. But beneath its blender-mix of electronics and indie guitars, 'Ares' is perhaps the most irreverent Bloc Party tune yet; tons of fun but unsatisfying in the end. These uncertain moments are littered throughout Intimacy, a record seemingly more interested in opportunity and adventure than the boring details, and I applaud them for regaining their sense of urgency left on the metro steps after A Weekend in the City. Before I tread any further, A Weekend in the City was and remains a fantastic record, one far more deserving than its critical response, nonetheless the recent backlash on the heels of Intimacy's release. Urgency wasn't that album's concern, however, and having soundtracked several parties in 2005 to Silent Alarm, I'm excited to hear Bloc Party back to their twilight hour decadence.

Decadence is truly the word of choice here. Their usual dissonant moments are now polished in electronic buzzes and saws (the surge of 'Trojan Horse') or synth-work knotted to early, trademarked sounds ('One Month Off'). Even in their organic state, Bloc Party have continued the electro push of last year's oddball single 'Flux' into this new material, from Matt Tong's cloying drum machine technique ('Better Than Heaven') to 'Biko's lilting guitar ode, looped and stuttered over protooled beats. These songs speak even thicker of Bloc Party's ambition to soundtrack urban desensitization than A Weekend in the City did, precisely because it doesn't blatantly outline its lyrical agenda like that album unfortunately succumbed to. Better yet, Intimacy lives up to its name by collecting some of Kele's most personal vocals to date, blood-letting this neon-bright metropolitan vibe all over our 4am bedrooms. It's a path Kele and Co. have arguably been searching for since their debut, and Intimacy successfully finds them intwined in the melodrama of relationship fodder.

When I contend that details aren't of primary focus here, that isn't to say that Bloc Party haven't laboured intensely (and secretly) over these eleven songs. 'Signs', in all its glory, is not only worthy of being touted as their best song, it's also among their most experimental; taking a 4/4 micro-house beat, suffocating synth and an army of bells into their own, increasingly brilliant blend of androgynous mood and Bloc-balladry. Which brings us to 'Talons', the latest surprise single from those generous Brits, which again blends innocent melody to dense guitars, cutting in and out of the mix, against a man-made dance rhythm. So the production is intricate, no doubt there, but the band manages to caress their instincts instead of being self-conscious; in the process avoiding another over-wrought narrative that occasionally troubled their last album. In other words, Intimacy could be that record playing over club speakers when Kele and his friends were doing coke in bathrooms and getting promiscuous through the lyrical woes of A Weekend in the City.

What keeps Intimacy's energy from tipping over or becoming stagnant is how unpredictable it plays out; cut between two producers (who helmed Silent Alarm and A Weekend in the City, respectively), this offering presents an admirable fear of commitment; when you're in a band so proficient at both aggressive indie rock and glamorous art-rock, which do you choose? Moreover, are you in a rush to decide? This unbalanced set actually gives weight to the it's devil-may-care eclecticism, making Intimacy better off in its compromised confusion than choosing a single love. We're still talking about a record, right?

Intimacy is available now in digital MP3. Physical CD/LP format will hit stores on October 28th, 2008.

4.) Silent Alarm - Bloc Party (ST. PATTY'S 2008)

Silent Alarm

Bloc Party
Vice Records.


SCQ Rating: 79%

The opening guitar coda on ‘Like Eating Glass’ acts precisely like an beacon, a pulsating combination of tones that announces itself like any non-silent alarm would. And if that nearly unravels the significance of this debut’s title (being what one hears at the on-set of quarter-life crisis, says vocalist Kele Okerere), Silent Alarm undresses the very notion of becoming complacent and grabbing at a picket fence.

Urgency is what keeps this album on the brink at all times; ‘This Modern Love’ only proves to be romantic at its tail-end, while ‘Positive Tension’ showcases Bloc Party in their separate talents before combining like an A+ chemistry lab; Matt Tong’s unmistakable drumming, deep bass grooves, the effect-laden guitar and Okele’s bark. The stability displayed here is what makes sophomore A Weekend in the City feel lopsided; here, no song structure is set in stone – the tempo is always shifting.

A bit overwhelming at fourteen songs, Silent Alarm could’ve lost some of its back end and left us wanting more. By ‘Compliments’ however, even the band sound exhausted, which surprisingly leads to a fresh detour into sonic haziness. It’s a decent comedown from a band whose strength is their potent energy, and also a glimpse into their recording future.