A Weekend in the City
Bloc Party may just have touched the dizzy heights of something rare and special here, making the ‘difficult second album’ syndrome seem like a complete misnomer.
In bettering their debut (no mean feat considering ‘Silent Alarm’ was possibly the finest product of 2005's post-punk glut) the Londoners have shown a remarkable ability to not only retain the sensibility that made them so popular the first time round, but to evolve as songwriters and musicians.
On a bed of busy guitar, complex drum patterns and pulsing bass, their thrilling hooks, broken atmospherics and pop choruses kick up great clouds of dust, manifesting as a boisterous, fearful and distrustful tale of modern life.
Condensing a typical weekend of urban existence into 51 minutes of earnest and frantic echoes of love, memories and xenophobia, singer Kele Okereke’s lyrics plead for an escape from these darker and more desperate times. It’s heartfelt, heavy stuff.
Succeeding in their experimentation, they’ve pushed the limits of their imagination and technical scope. You’ve just got to wonder what can possibly come next.
By Josh Gardiner
Release: Album
To Cure: An empty dancefloor
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