A definite step in the right direction after A Weekend in the City, Intimacy sees Bloc Party at their most experimental musically, yet their most personal lyrically. Highlights include fizzing opener "Ares", which boasts a drum beat ripped straight from The Chemical Brothers and a riff ripped straight from the middle of an Eddie Van Halen solo, "One Month Off"'s menacing chorus ('I can be as cruel as you/Fighting fire with firewood'), first single "Mercury", and the tender and delicate "Biko", which recalls Post-era Bjork. The song that will really keep you coming back to this album, though, is "Zephyrus". Through the album's most electronically centered music, Okereke sings his most affecting lyrics yet - 'Maybe I'm ashamed of the things I put you through/Maybe I'm ashamed of the man I was for you/And all you said, in your quietest voice/Was I needed you as much as they do'. Romantic, Orff-esque choral stabs and harsh drums intervene, but nothing can stop this from being the band's most incredible ballad yet. As a whole, this album just keeps growing and growing - it may yet prove to be even better than Silent Alarm.
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