indie Bloc Party

Just saw them last night (Exeter Uni, Great Hall) and they were brilliant. I've never called myself a fan of theirs but after listening to my friends copies of the two albums the week leading up to the gig I can confirm that I have indeed been converted.

The new album is so brilliantly pieced together. Kele's vocals approach despair and frustration with such hauntingly beautiful tones. You cannot help but think that this band actually mean something. The drumming is solid throughout, driving the melodies into your head until you cannot help but nod/tap/kump to it. I can understand why they released The Prayer first, it's a bold reinstatement of what Bloc Party are about. Hunting for Witches is a little too political, a little too meaningful for an opening single.

Best tracks of the gig:

Helicopter

The Prayer

Pioneers (last song... oh the irony - "not the last")

Best tracks of the album:

Songs For Clay

Waiting For The 7.18

I Still Remember

Keep listening Christian, it's definitely a grower. I pretty much hated it the first time I heard it but I'm starting to like it now. Definitely one for the sweaty indie-clubs.

Personally though I wouldn't really want their next album to go that far in the electro-direction. WITC struck a great balance between art-rock and electro but it was a little lacking in punching tracks like Helicopter and Banquet.

quote EricF

Yeah, it's a great tune as well as Flux. I'm not too fond of Letter To My Son though, it's not their best but it's not bad.

I love Ion Square also.

Eh? Flux is on the re-released version of AWITC, not Intimacy.

You're spot on with Ion Square though, lovely song in the same vein of other great slower, introspective songs like Sunday and So Here We Are.

I'm still unconvinced by Intimacy even after the 5th/6th full play-through. It's just lacking the punch that Silent Alarm had and the lyricism of AWITC. It's just a shame when the best versions of an album's songs are remixes.

Thanks Rob that version of Pioneers is awesome. When it first came out I dismissed Silent Alarm Remixed as a butchering of my then favourite album. That said my taste in music was a lot more narrow back then and I probably heard the album's duds rather than it's bangers. Worth getting my hands on the whole deal?

I'll find and post a youtube vid up tomorrow sometime unless someone beats me to it.

Watching their Glastonbury performance (iPlayer footage here and here for UK 'seekers) it brought home a couple of things:

As part of a complete live performance Intimacy tracks do actually fit quite nicely into the broader repertoire of Silent Alarm and AWITC material. Stripped of their over-produced gloss, tracks like One More Chance and Mercury sound a lot more like the Bloc Party I fell in love with back in 2005.

However, given the crowd's reaction and also the sheer enjoyment that Kele and the boys were expressing it's still obvious to me that the band are at their visceral best on tracks like Helicopter, Song For Clay, Banquet, The Prayer and This Modern Love. Great to see them crack out So Here We Are as well. Light years away from recent stuff, it's definitely up there with my favourite Bloc Party tracks in the way that it builds into a crescendo of angular guitars and swooning vocals.

Set list of Glastonbury set: (for those that are interested)

1. One Month Off
2. Hunting For Witches
3. Positive Tension
4. Halo
5. Signs
6. Waiting For The 7.18
7. Song For Clay
8. Banquet
9. Two More Years
10. One More Chance
11. Mercury
12. So Here We Are
13. The Prayer
14. Ares
15. Flux
16. Helicopter
17. This Modern Love

Really Euphoric? That has to be one of the worst Bloc Party mixes I've ever heard.

It's a heartless remix, by stripping the song down to admittedly rather lame vocals and dropping the jutting guitars and awesome rhythm section you're left with a track that's got no soul. Of course a remix doesn't have to carry the tone of the original but to take such an iconic track and play some dull drum beats and synth chords underneath with some RnB vocals alongside Kele's just strikes me as uninspired at best.

Sorry Euphoric, I'm guessing he's much better live than over youtube.