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Late to the Bloc Party

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superpretend

superpretend

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Posted

Jesus, that was terrible.

Remember when Bloc Party used to have guitars? Not that I'm against trying new things or anything... but man, talk about not playing to your strengths.

What happened to the melodies? Was Kele's voice always this annoying and I never noticed before? Shit man, these guys used to be good. ;)

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Eighthours

Eighthours

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I didn't like it at all on first listen. Just a bit of Bloc Party opinion history here - I loved Silent Alarm, thought that A Weekend In The City was one of the most disappointing sophomore efforts I've ever heard, and kinda liked Flux in the end.

But this... are they ever going to return to some tunes? Kele yelping in the same way he did throughout AWITC isn't the way to go. Trying something different again is fine, but he needs to rediscover melody in the process.

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JubJubBird

JubJubBird

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That really is awful. I really liked Silent Alarm, but the combination of that single, the second album being a bit rubbish and the band just being the biggest bunch of dicks imaginable means they are being ignored from now on.

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JubJubBird

JubJubBird

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I've just gone back and listened to silent alarm having ignored it for a while, and it's still a class album.

The thing that strikes me about Bloc Party is that, essentially, they are a talented band with a crap frontman. Silent alarm was driven by primarily by the other 3 guys, AWITC was about Kele moaning about how misunderstood he is, and flux/Mercury seem to be someone discovering the funny noise settings in the studio for the very first time.

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superpretend

superpretend

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I can ignore the haircut. Shit, I don't even watch music videos anymore and now that I live in no-gig zone, all I have are my ears. And my ears are bleeding.

I'm agree with most people here. Silent Alarm was a strong debut which petered out a bit at the end. Weekend In The City is one of the most disappointing follow ups I've ever heard (I think only Neon Bible disappointed me more). The Prayer is great song, but everything else on the album was tepid.

I get the feeling Bloc Party are trying to make a Kid A. Without having made an OK Computer beforehand. Or a Bends.

Or a Pablo Honey. :P

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LittleJoe

LittleJoe

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Russel always comes across as a desperate Jonny Greenwood wannabe. But good guitarist I think.

The band feels like it's being hi-jacked by Kele's desire to say somthing big and meaningful, compared to the punchy but generally meaningless lyrics on Silent Alarm.

As a result he seems to slow the entire band down and makes them seem more 'clunky' when he tries to ram a line in about society's deviation from a whatever the fuck.

On Silent Alarm he just used his voice as a instrument and his lyrical style was quite vague and open to interpretation. Now he just seems to try so hard to say somthing big in an extremely literal way and that is why this new single and most of AWITC was full of the most cringeworthy lyrical clangers.

They were brilliant live when I saw them at Alexandra Palace though...

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Escobar

Escobar

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Fuck sakes, this track starts off terrible.. then, erm. Wow, I didn't expect it to be as bad as you were all saying. That was awful.

I really like A Weekend In The City, much nicer production than Silent Alarm, which irritates my ears now. Plus, the songs are loveeely.

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Loik V credern

Loik V credern

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Just listened to it for the third time. Never again.

Two More Years onwards, Kele has been gurning and yelping his tripe lyrics in the most cheesy false way. It's unlistenable, he just sounds constipated and more insincere than Chris Martin. And now, the music itself sounds equally constipated. Mind you, as Bloc Party are officially dead it will be at least interesting to hear their next album.

Kele Okereke said: "It's a song we finished a little while ago that we're really proud of so we thought we'd let everyone hear it. I'm still somewhat in awe."

:P

Those who like Two More Years and A Weekend in the City might as well say; 'i have no idea of what made Bloc Party good in the first place'.

I quite like the lyrics on the first album btw.

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K

K

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Posted
Thanks, Bloc Party. After nineteen years of trying I'd finally managed to suppress memories Black Box's Ride On Time, and now look what you've gone and done.

Why would you try and repress memories of one of the greatest songs ever written? :)

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Streets_Disciple

Streets_Disciple

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Burial remix of "Where is Home?" is actually awesome. Uses very little of the original track, which is presumably why.

I was actually really dissapointed there wasn't more of the track in there. It's just a Burial track with some lyric samples from Where Is Home? in it.

Anyway, I don't mind the new single. Think it's alright!

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Isaac

Isaac

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Oh my god, the horns. Such a horrible track.

Bloc Party can't do dance, and won't get on the recent electro resurgence, no matter how hard they try, so can they please just quit and try and get back to indie?

They're not going to be crossing genres with this shite at any rate.

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  • 1 month later...
LittleJoe

LittleJoe

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From Cokemachineglow:

Bloc Party :: "Mercury"

Single (2008)

Okay, that’s it. I’m calling Okereke out. I mean, he’s no fool. Hell, he managed to align himself with one of the tightest rhythm sections outside of the Dap-Kings. Outside of that, though, all he’s got is missteps, and there’s just too damn many to simply be the overspill of the clichéd misanthropic self-belief of arrogant youth. Nuh-uh. This has got to be on purpose. Kele is the troll of 2008’s music scene.

Why else would he cry “uncle” at Green Day’s supposed milking of post-Iraq anti-Americanism and yet base the whole of the thankless A Weekend In The City (2007) on societal fears after the London bombings? Why else would he decry Jim White’s perfectly rational conclusion that he was not a political role-model? Why else would he deny playing the holier-than-thou card and yet feel perfectly comfortable saying “I’ve always been mildly suspicious of that hedonistic behavior that goes on everywhere, but most notably in gay clubs” when being interviewed by a gay magazine? He can’t be this oblivious. He must be trying to get a reaction.

And “Mercury,” Bloc Party’s “grime” song, has got to be about getting a reaction too, right? I mean, it’s released two years too late for one—Dizzee is going pop by collabing with Calvin Harris. For two, this song is bad. Spectacularly bad. Confrontationally bad. And I’m laying the blame for that squarely at Okereke’s feet, since we know that Moakes, Lissack, and Tong are better than these shitty drum patterns and piss-weak horn arrangements. And, hell, even if their talents are sorely underused, it’s still Okereke’s presence that is the painful thing regardless. Apart from the über-dated vocal looping not heard since Rick Astley (“Mer-ma-mer-m-ma-mercury”) we have Okereke’s fuck-witted lyrics squawked tunelessly like a low-rent John Lydon: “Scars on my shins, scars on my knuckles / Today I woke up in the basketball court / John Joe’s in Sydney and he ain’t returning / I’m sitting in Soho trying to stay drunk.” Are we really still being fed that urban pan-sexual gutter-glamour schtick Suede was peddling 15 years ago and Bowie had perfected over 30 years ago? Really?

I beseech you to not buy this single. Seriously, let’s stop feeding the troll and maybe Okereke and his ludicrous persona will leave us alone.

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Nate Dogg III

Nate Dogg III

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That's great. ;)

And entirely correct. You've got one of the best drummers in the business so, yeah, let's get some really dry electronic 4/4 in, yeah? Mexico.

I've been listening to the Little Thoughts EP and the CD EP this week and while patchy there's some fantastic stuff on there - that instrumental bit at the end of The Answer on the CD EP is my favourite forty seconds of music in ages (along with the end of that Dan Le Sac tune that samples Planet Telex anyway). I'd call it a shame but the guy's such an objectionable fuckstick that all I feel is Schadenfreude.

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