With this album, context is important. Silent Alarm put Bloc Party firmly on the map with what at the time soudned like an astonishing record. With time though, the album sounds distinctly two dimensional. It’s a brilliantly focussed record, and one that I love, but the songs just don’t have a lot of depth, or texture. When their second album A Weekend In The City was released, it initially seemed amazing. However with time, the album revealed itself to be a little top heavy and the second half of that album is generally regarded to be below par. A shame, because much of the work in the early half of the album is stunning.
So what expectations can you have when the new album is shock released, prefaced only by Mercury; a song which divided Bloc Party’s fanbase in two. Mercury with it’s mashed up vocals, up front drums, synth noises and brass instruments was the perfect example of a marmite song. It’s tempting to say that your opinion of Mercury is likely to give you an idea of what you think of the album, but that’s not quite true. The focus certainly isn’t exclusively on guitars in this album, though Bloc Party were always quite good at shifting the focus. Inevitably most peoples’ memories of Silent Alarm will be of one of those amazing guitar hooks.
I imagine the siren like guitar hook of Ares may have the alarm bells ringing for many. Particularly when the rest of the track comes on a bit like an awesome version of The Chemical Brothers. It’s an amazing assault of lyrics, squeals, guitar and synth stabs; all anchored by a slightly tinny drum beat. In short, it’s awesome. Similarly Trojan Horse assaults the senses. Sounding like a crazy sonic version of sparklers mixed with the sound effects from a bad science fiction film. Only not quite, somehow under it all it manages to be a guitar led tune, much more in keeping with old Bloc Party than at first apparent. The back end of the song comes on almost like a new take on Postive Tension, a cast iron Bloc classic. One Month Off is in a similar vein to Trojan Horse, only much more visceral. It’s perhaps the most exciting track vocally from a traditional point of view.
Halo initially seems like it’s harking back to the Silent Alarm era and getting it all wrong. In short, there’s too much distortion. However the classic trick of suddenly breaking it down to guitars and bulding the song back up works its magic. Suddenly that trademark clean guitar sound re-appears, before the drums kick everything towards a scintilating conclusion.
Sandwiched between Halo and Trojan Horse is the song I’m tempted to call the centre-piece of the album. Biko is a very delicate guitar tune, with a focus not only on the main vocals; but also the ones that jump in saying “You’re not doing this alone,” these dance between your speakers, making for a truly interesting effect. By the time the beats drop in, and yes that’s beats, the song already feels magic. It feels like they managed to re-imagine their old delicate songs, but with a spin lifted from Thom Yorke’s The Eraser. Signs is another re-imagining of a slow Bloc Party song and comes with quite simply the most beautiful glockenspiel introduction I have ever heard.
Another song which includes prominent electronics is Zephyrus. It also features that oft used trick of using vocals as an instrument, with a few vocal loops staying throughout the length of the song. It also feature excellent use of a choir, which while almost making it sound like something out of Final Fantasy VIII; also ensures it’s utterly captivating. The choir gives the song a textural depth and emotional weight it wouldn’t otherwise have had. Towards the end of the song the quiet extra vocal trick from Biko re-appears, once again to great effect.
Better Than Heaven and Ion Square probably offer the strongest ending of a Bloc Party album to date. Silent Alarm struggled, stringing Plans and Compliments together where perhaps Compliments could have ended the album and Plans could have been utilised elsewhere in the album. The entrire back half of A Weekend In The City lacks weight, being mostly comprised of ballads. Intimacy doesn’t make this mistake. Better Than Heaven is dark, with an exciting end. Ion Square is a typically uplifting final track. It is worth noting though perhaps, that these two tracks still probably represent the weakest tracks on the album.
That’s not a criticism however, it merely shows the quality of the rest of the album. I can’t wholeheartedly reccomend the album to fans of older Bloc Party off by Mercury. Furthermore the album isn’t as revolutionary as Ares and Mercury suggests. This is not Bloc Party’s Kid A, though it seems evident they intend to evolve their sound to the point where they make that record. Evidently though, they’ve lost a lot of shock value with this album, by already showing they’re going in that direction. The shift will never be as seismic as that between OK Computer and Kid A.
Still, that’s a consideration for another time. This is a fantastic album that I would love to recommend to everybody, though I suspect if you didn’t like Mercury, you’ll find the album as a whole difficult to get in to at first, if you can get in to it at all.
