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Review Summary: Bloc Party would like you to think that they still have it. “We knew [Traps] had to be the first thing people heard from this album,” says frontman Okereke, sounding off a glimmer of hope to the wounded feelings of fans that have adjured the group to return to the days of viscerally alerting post-punk. Amidst a dance beat and some clever snare play on the aforementioned track, Kele gives us a laundry list of poorly imagined pick-up lines and attempts to relegate his agonistic expressions (such as calling Oasis band members “inbred twins,” and disparagements of Kanye West in solo work) to an amounting display of masculinity, and more conceptually, an urging to make note of the increase in asserting dominance over others in modern society - in workplaces, in friendships. With a title like Alpha Games, he gives enough credence to this attempt at rectification. Day Drinker’s stripped down effects, along with louder and pensively urged percussion show an immediate grasp at their heydays, until things quickly appear more relaxed and reserved than they would seem. The most testosterone-laden moments (Callum Is A Snake, Day Drinker, and Traps) are mostly withdrawn in their stance, offering up a mere wisp of avidity and emotion to latch onto.
It then goes without saying that it has been six years since Hymns. Their sleek jousts have long taken a career backseat to their desires to experiment and slow their pace. Now, its return is largely anemic, as though performed as a reluctant favor. Okereke and Lissack drudge along with their casters until they nearly appear compelled to step off the record (The Girls Are Fighting, Sex Magik, Peace Offering), as if protesting against each other in their own province of government. This leaves the bulk of the load to be carried by Harris and newcomer Bartle, who deserves praise for her varied staccato which gives the group a wonderful sense of synchronization – see her succinct and admirable handiwork in Callum and Rough Justice, as well as her illuminating backup vocals on If We Get Caught which she had to push to keep in the final cut – but even with those unique moments, the breaks into dance beats and by-the-numbers rhythms elsewhere do little to illude that there’s a worthwhile melody beneath.
The dozens of seconds that bookend In Situ are more appealing than the convoluted mess of ideas in-between, appearing as a neutered track that once had a discernable and clear target in mind. Considering the supposed thematic context of the album, it’s not a stretch to speculate that a few charged barbs could have been stripped/pruned, since Kele is able to retain attention when he is openly throwing spears at Morrissey and Brandon Flowers for thoughts on the political stirrings within the UK. The periodic moments where he dishes out fortune cookie-tier snippets of wisdom to move things along (This is not the time to go rogue / You need to get your hustle on / You can get it anytime that you want) are inches towards what fans have clamored for all these years.
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Album Rating: 2.5
Alternate summary: The party isn't over, but it has run its course and people would like to go home now
| | | Album Rating: 3.3
fair enough review. If We Get Caught is still one of their best tunes to me. love Truth and Things Yet to Come too
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
you should know the truth is tune
the rest is strays between bad to mildly good with flashes of brilliance and utter dogshit
kele needs better lyrics
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
>fair enough review.
tanks. If We Get Caught is a standout for sure. There's some good moments here, but they're just too far apart
>kele needs better lyrics
[2] agreed
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This sucks im sure but I dont have the will to check
nice review tho
| | | Album Rating: 3.3
Blue off the new EP is really goddamn nice
| | | Album Rating: 2.0
Whole album teeters on the edge of irritating or forgettable, and there's no in between. This band had so much potential with their first 2 albums, what happened?
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None of those big British indie/alternative/garage/post-punk rock bands from the 2000s lived up to their potential in the long run. Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park, The Libertines, Interpol. The list goes on.
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The band that peaked the highest on your list (Interpol) aren't actually British, lol
Point taken overall. As for these guys specifically, Silent Alarm was great but even the follow-up was at best, wildly inconsistent and at worst, a very disappointing "reinvention"
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Oh shit, you're right lol. Maybe I was thinking of Editors.
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I did consider that a possibility (as it was a thing back in the day)
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editors first two are really great interpol plagiarism
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Editors first album was a fave of a lass who I had a brief liaison with but we were young and I didn’t get laid, so it’s a seriously bad album by proxy, lol
Weirdest thing is her parents were in, I wasn’t supposed to be there but I stayed all night. Why wasn’t I kicked out? There’s no way they didn’t know. Adolescence / young adult life was strange sometimes
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on a more musical note Interpol was so far clear, it was always obvious
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lol now that's a way to remember an album. and of course interpol clear but those albums are great. not a lot of stuff that sounds like interpol and editors came close.
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It’s funny because that “Editors are Interpol lite thing” was always a commonly applied comparison, yet there were a few significant differences looking back. I think it was just what we were exposed to at the time. As in it was born from an age where we didn’t all have access to more music (imo). Yeah, of course there were similarities but the two were far from identical.
Interpol’s rhythm section was more prominent. Especially from Antics onwards. It was mostly TOTBL that Editors kinda “aped” I guess
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