Is that it? Is that seriously it? What just happened here... The once popular among Adidas tracky bottom wearers playing football on Saturday mornings and drinking Special Brew/Super Tennants whilst holding an XBOX controller playing FIFA... Bloc Party, return. Granted, it has been four years since Intimacy, which co-insides with the upcoming album title, Fourth. It will simply be their fourth album, so they're naming it Fourth. 'Silent Alarm' drew in the fans, with dance-punk/indie rock/post-punk 'revival'. It wasn't all that clear as to what Bloc Party were. I group them with LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip, however others would rather put them in the same group as Keane and The Killers. Wherever they belong, they're an NME band, and that's something not to be proud of.
Bloc Party haven't had a bad career in music. They've released some decent tunes with the likes of 'Flux' and 'The Prayer' coming from album no. 2, A Weekend In The City. Intimacy spawned 'Mercury', with it's Karl Pilkington-esque video. Bloc Party have always had dance elements in their music, with electronic as an addition bonus over the mainly rock musical output. 'Octopus' sounds empty. The dance-punk drums do enough to keep me interested for now, however after multiple listens sound extremely straightforward and repetitive without any variations whatsoever. That's until the chorus where we hear Kele's different vocal, compared to his talking, smooth voice on the chorus. The guitars sound great, they really do. But I'm not sure this two chord/three chord sounds do enough for me in a track with very little going on. At 2.12 we hear this incredibly bland and annoying guitar solo which has been included for taking the track over 2 minutes 30. It doesn't really do anything for me, and the 'metal' sound is ridiculous with the skeleton guitars and speedy drumming.
They can do better than this, and they know it. The direction they've taken will be much discussed if the album sounds similar to this. Bloc Party may have returned for another album, but is it worth it. I think they're one for the 2005 music history books. When the NOW CD's finally turned rock orientated instead of pop. Well that time has passes, and so have Bloc Party, for now anyway.
~Eddie
