I read a review of this album today (admittedly in London Careers magazine) that gave this two stars! Two fucking stars! Crikey.
Luckily, they are wrong and I am right. I really really like this album, it's completely immediate and a good fit for me.
Forget your downloading, if it's a band I LOVE I wait and get the CD. I love lying in my bed, reading the lyrics, letting it all sink in. I'd advise listening to it really loud first go.
Opener Song For Clay (Disappear Here) is an energetic start and concerns Kele feeling a bit let down in a posh restaurant. Poor thing. Somehow you feel for him though. How awful to actually live the dream and then be terminally disappointed with it. London is shit. Drugs are shit. You can criticise, but he's right, isn't he? It is all very empty and vacuous but we keep doing it.
Hunting For Witches has a nice guitar riff and I very much enjoyed it on my walk to work today. Lyrics concern bombings, racism; it's just like reading the Daily Mail. I think Kele is the same age as me, and grew up listening to Pulp and the Britpop explosion. Like him, I feel like I was sold something that never came true. But it did for him.
Who is this album about, him or his friends doing the 9-5? Surely being in a band must be fun. But what if your dreams come true and you still feel just the same? Maybe this tiny bit of hope of something better is the only thing worth having.
Waiting for the 7.18 is a more traditional Bloc Party 'ballad' (haha) of the twinkly variety. The drums are good on the album as well, I like the dance music leanings. I like the lyrics to this one: drugs, alienation. Is there a theme developing here? Yes indeed.
The Prayer was the first single with the video where they all looked twatted on e. It's good to dance to and I like that it's quite different to the rest of the album, and not such an obvious Bloc party tune. The tribally backing vocals are good too.
Uniform is mildly epic- Kele is disappointed that all the kids in the shopping centre look the same. Mainly like him and his bandmates. Actually this song is really good as it builds up. It's quite dark. The lyrics on this album are certainly miles more specific than on Silent Alarm, some would probably say too obvious. But generally it works, and I'm glad he's talking about things that affect me personally.
On is almost too similar to the others for me, similar to ones on this album and the previous. Some Bloc party songs blend into one for me and this is one of them. 'Vampires' and 'charm' have been mentioned already too! I'm so picky. Everyone will love this one, I'm sure.
Where is Home? like Uniform kicks in after the first couple of verses and lyrically is about Kele's murdered cousin and him feeling out of place in the UK. It's really depressing that probably a million people feel the same way and I feel ashamed, but also part of it in a minor way, because I feel no sense of pride in this country, and certainly none in being white, or English. Everything is just an accident of birth. This is a pretty powerful song lyrically and musically.
Kreuzberg has that Bloc Party twinkly sound, and seems to be about an ill-fated one night stand and the emptiness afterwards.
I Still Remember is the other one everyone has probably heard and was described eloquently by my boyfriend as 'the one about gay fucking'. Very different to the rest of the album; extremely poppy with a Smithsy guitar riff. The lyrics are reminicent of 'There is a Light That Never Goes Out'- a moving tale of a missed romantic opportunity.
Sunday is a romantic comedown tale. I really like it, except the line 'a pearl in your oyster' which seems pretty lazy and made my cliche-o-meter ring. I like the thought of being loved whilst 'strung out' though.
SRXT (I have no idea what that stands for: I've done fuck all research and the NME's not out to tell me what to think, haha) reminded me of 'No Lies, Just Love' by Bright Eyes- a suicide note in a song, but a nice gentle one, not like one My Chemical Romance would leave. Its really lovely actually, but leaves you feeling very depressed. What a way to end the album. Thanks Kele. Actually, the final end part is quite uplifting.
In conclusion though, a really solid follow up to Silent Alarm, no filler whatsoever, and you can't often say that about an album. I hope Kele cheers up and enjoys being in a band.
If he really DID have to do the 9-5 as I do, he'd be properly down.
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