Album review: Bloc Party – Four

Remember when I used to write about things other than Big Brother? No? Well here’s one for you BB haters/ indie kids. I downloaded the new Bloc Party album last night and I have to say, expectations were not high. I thought Kele’s solo effort was quite poor (the single was OK – but that’s about it – and I like dance music). I do like Bloc Party’s dance stuff like Flux and The Prayer so I'm not anti-dance at all, I just thought it was quite a weak album and Kele looked a bit ashamed doing it. Or maybe that's just how I felt looking at some of his outfits.
The new album seems very varied, showcasing all their various sides (vocoders, xylophones, loud guitars, whispering) and a couple of tracks are so heavy they’re verging on metal, but I really liked those ones.
So there are a few little chatty bits/ outtakes inbetween; something Bright Eyes and Eminem are both quite fond of, and which are irritating from first listen, but anyway.
The album starts strongly with So He Begins to Lie. There’s quite a nice guitary bit (all technical terms here) at the end, which I think sets the tone quite nicely; a strong start that sets the tone for the album.
3x3 kind of reminds me of a Patrick Wolf song at the start with all the whispering. ‘No one loves you’ seems a bit harsh until he follows it with ‘as much as I.’ Is that grammatically correct? No matter. This is the first one that goes a bit ‘Muse’. He’s kind of yodelling a bit which is quite cool, and it gets quite thrashy. ‘No means no,’ he whispers, and then starts screeching ‘yes’ – it’s a bit sexy, really. I like him screaming! Have we heard him screaming before? Screaming is always good from any artist. This was the first song that made me sit up and think, ‘hmm, this is a bit of a different direction for them.’ And I liked it.
Octopus I’ve obviously already heard and I think it’s one of their kind of ‘cool’ hipster tracks that I’m not sure whether to like or not. Having said that, I love Mercury, and I think it’s in the same sort of vein. It reminds me a bit of One More Chance, but it’s not quite as catchy. More Muse guitars.
Real Talk is a bit Bloc Party by numbers again, and a bit of a comedown after the first three tracks sounding quite fresh and different from each other. At the end of Real Talk there’s some pointless muttering about Kele’s breasts, no idea what's going on there.
Kettling is another song with quite heavy guitars, and feels like a step forward, and except for The Darkness style guitar in the middle, I the general rocky feel of it is exciting, and suits the band well.
Day Four is Bloc Party as you know it, but is quite lovely, a This Modern Love sort of feeling they've recreated many times before, but that is always strangely comforting.
Coliseum is also a weird direction, it has kind of a cowboy/hoedown vibe to it at first and then it goes quite thrashy again. I’m not sure if I like it, but I appreciate the effort.
V.A.L.I.S mentions meth and science at the start so that makes you think of the obvious; Breaking Bad. ‘He is not the real me but I can hear him from the future’ is a cool lyric, too. I really like this one, it’s got a good pace to it.
It goes a bit flat after track 8. Team A is sort of Bloc Party by numbers again, a bit b-sidey and a little bit whiney towards the end (and not in a good way). The next track Truth is more like something off Intimacy, or Weekend..., it has echoes of Signs and I Still Remember and is quite poppy and light. The Healing is a bit dreary and dull. There’s a bit of vaguely interesting falsetto at the end but not enough to get me going.
We are Not Good People picks things back up again, with a bit of a punky feel, but isn’t as appealing as the two rockier tracks at the beginning, it’s a bit more dirgy.
I often find the ‘bonus track’ is the best song on the album – Your visits are getting shorter, for example probably got played in my car more often than any other track on Intimacy (although Ion Square is pretty good on that album, too). The bonus track we get here is called Mean and sounds like a typical Bloc Party song…I feel like I’ve heard it a zillion times before.
So does this album stand up to some of their best work: Two More Years, Blue Light, SRXT – well, not quite. But I do think it’s better than Intimacy, and better than A Weekend in the City, which had moments of lyrical embarrassment at times. They'll never be able to recreate the magic of their first album, but the first one of anything is always the best. I love Kele and the boys and it's good to see them back together, where they belong.

Gig: Bloc Party live at the Olympia Grand Hall

I went to see Bloc Party on Easter Sunday! Woo, I'm hoping to see ALL my favourite bands this year. In fact I'm seeing Morrissey three times... but that's next month.
A word of advice: read the goddamn ticket yourself! We ended up going to Earls Court instead of Olympia because of a 'technical error' with my boyfriend's brain. Already feeling worse for wear from the night before, every additional step was pain. Plus we had no money for a drink. Then were greeted by sniffer dogs, which seems a bit much. What are we gonna do, toke someone to death?
We got there JUST in time for the end of Bloc Party's first song, so I cannot tell you what Wet Paint or the Foals were like, although fictional psychopath David Platt likes the Foals, so that's one mark against them.
The Olympia Grand Hall was massive, and half empty. I thought this gig had sold out? There was tons of room in there, and we got right down at the front to the side (we couldn't go too far in as we were both feeling a little queasy, in fact I was struggling to keep standing for the first half- but that's my fault, not Bloc Party's).
I thought the setlist wasn't THAT hot at first, it seems a bit second-album heavy, which is, of course, their worst album. That one about going to mall and mentioning the freeway always makes me balk a bit, for obvious reasons.
However, I thought things really picked up about a third in, particularly with Banquet, Two More Years, This Modern Love, Blue Light, The Prayer and Mercury. I LOVE Mercury live, and was so glad they didn't play it first so I didn't miss it. At wireless they played it first so I was panicking.
Kele was in good spirits, wearing a silly bunny outfit for the encore and getting fluff stuck to his face. Oh and they finished with Flux! They had lasers and everything, it was the perfect ending.
One thing I will say, I don't think the acoustics were great in this venue, it sounded like his mic was a bit quiet at first. I've heard louder at festivals, which shouldn't be the case (mind you, nothing could top Glastonbury for completely destroying the Killers gig for me- bastard Eavis!)
So, Bloc Party. Everyone was about 12, but we still enjoyed it. If you haven't got the new album, you should. Even their b-sides are excellent.
Come on, I'll do you a mixtape, let's go old skool.

Reading Festival 2008: Saturday

So I trundled along to Reading this weekend on a day ticket, mainly to see Bloc Party & The Killers. The weather was actually pretty good, there was only a mild sprinkling of rain during Bloc Party and by then I was crammed so close to other people it didn't really matter!
The first time I went to Reading was the year Kurt Cobain died (and the brilliantly shambolic Hole performance) when I was 14- I'm now TWICE as old as that (and I actually felt it looking at some of this crowd). I think my festival days may be drawing to a close, and certainly whole weekends are. I'm SUCH a baby. Having said that, I really enjoyed the day.
The first thing that struck me about Reading was; it stinks and you don't get used to it. So it's best to drink as much as possible. I also got some serious sunburn, despite it being cloudy.
But yeah, the bands. Editors: they all sound like Munich, don't they. I like Munich, but I don't want to hear 12 variations of it. Cheer up, mate. We are Scientists... one good album, but they forgot to write any tunes for the second album. They are always good for a bit of sarcastic banter though.
The Raconteurs: if they were half as good as Jack White's enormous ego, they'd be amazing. I thought Jack White looked fat, and I could see his knob through his revolting polyester trousers. Gross.
Bloc Party though, really were amazing, young, energetic, and, oh, the tunes. Opening with Mercury was brilliant; I was right in the thick of it and there was a brilliant atmosphere. I don't normally enjoy getting shoved around and I have major claustrophobia issues, but there was a good feeling in the air. Kele looked great too; really beefy! I liked his weedy look too, but he looked powerful in stage on Saturday. I downloaded Intimacy this week and enjoyed the dance sound but thought it sounded a little like Bloc Party By Numbers (and what's with the one that sounds like Block Rocking Beats)? But live it was spot on (and they only played two off it!) In fact the setlist was pretty much a dream; loads of oldies, Two more Years, The Prayer, Flux, Banquet, This Modern Love (which moved me to tears)... I could say more, but you get the general idea. It was a lesson in crowd-pleasing that Steven Patrick could do well to follow. When he jumped in the crowd at the end it was ace too, as he was right near us! I heard their set described as 'career-defining' on BBC3 today, and you know what, I think it was. It was just wonderful; confident, progressive and fun.
Then... The Killers! In between I became a sitting duck in the cross-hairs of a water fight with the cups of water security were handing out (for people to DRINK, not empty over my Iphone when I'm trying to hook up with JOTV!) but it was all good-humoured. I thought The Killers were great, but nothing could beat when I saw them at Wembley Arena, they were just perfect that night. The setlist wasn't quite as good here, and I didn't think much to the new song. (By the way, Brandon, so glad you shaved off the moustache, but what's with those TEETH? Did you go to Tom Cruise's dentist? Urgh!) but I enjoyed Tranquillize and you know, all the usuals. My feet started to hurt toward the end though and I had to have a little sit-down when Mr Brightside was on. (old age!)
All in all, WELL worth it, if only for Bloc Party. I could marry Kele if he wasn't gay.
Why are they ALWAYS gay?!
Oh, and we got the last rain home, just in time. Always a winner.

Music!

Even I'm bored of my Big Brother blogs, so let's talk randomly about something else.
I have recently fell IN LOVE with the Infadels song Free Things for Poor People. I imagined the singer as some lithe handsome indie boy, and actually he looks like a death metaller. But anyway, it's the catchiest song of the year so far, utterly cheesy but brilliantly poppy and singalong. I downloaded the rest of the album and was fairly unimpressed though. It did sound a bit like The Feeling.
Just edging it out of the way for single of the year though, is Bloc Party's Mercury, which is just so damn good! I think it's the best thing they've done for yonks and gets jammed in your head for days. I love their dancey stuff. I love their indie stuff too, but I think it's cool when bands I like go a bit techno. Unlike when they go country, Conor.
Talking of which... I heard two of Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band's new songs which I thought were a bit crap (Danny Callahan & Souled Out) but then I downloaded these live tracks off of the brilliant to die by your side and I absolutely fell in love with them. I'm sure he played Money Lenders when I saw him with Bright Eyes, but it's just a really lush song, and the untitled one is lovely too. It made me fall in love with him all over again. But please, bring on the techno (or the screaming) again soon, Conor. I can only take so much of the straw chewing.
I'm also very much liking The Geeks Were Right by The Faint which you can hear on this fab blog here, if you feel that way inclined. (Look at me doing links and everything, you can tell I've got time on my hands).

Big Brother 8: My Party Is Better Than Yours

What a hoot. Big Brother torutured them with Aggadoo and Pass the Parcel and locking them in a room with Nicky, who could start a fight with a newborn baby for looking at her funny. I correctly suggested a snake for her face-painting, but I was shocked she agreed to it. Maybe she's more self-aware than I thought.
Of course this wasn't really a hoot, for them or us. Ziggy looked suitably annoyed. I found Chanelle's singing unintentionally very amusing. She looked pretty in her glitzy dress. She has more genuine charm and kindness than the Zigster.
Brian seemed genuinely affected by Emily using the N word (you dumb-ass Charley, as if he's not allowed to have an opinion on that matter.) and I sensed he may have been the victim of racism in the past. Blunderbus Charley didn't seem to cotton onto this and instead tore shreds off him instead. i was impressed she didn't actually shout: I was willing her to. I love Brian and his touching honestly, I loved his anger and his tears and his brave face in the party room.
Charley could learn something from him. But she won't.

Bloc Party: A Weekend In The City

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.