so BLOC PARTY's new album is released in 4 days...

CD will be delivered on the 27th October.

Download will be delivered from 21st August.

course its not free like radiohead's was but u can't have it all.

as i already said on the silent alarm thread, i think this is going to be a complete and utter mess and not even lovable and in some parts fantastic like the last one

Why? I mean, I have no expectations for it, but that's solely based on their last disc and the fact that the same bad producer who worked on the last disc is also working on this new one.

a few superficial things like the tracklisting and the press release, but also knowing that kele is so far up his own ass and so into his own "experimentation" that he doesn't even want to write 12 good pop songs

which i think he tried to do on weekend in the city, which i liked a lot, aside from the awful production

but i'm holding out hope and ordered the album/digital thing

might've sprung for something discboxy but i guess they blew their load in that regard w/ "mercury"

I think this is going to be a mess, and that I'll love it anyway because I really like this band.

i don't consider mp3 leak dates as release dates but that must just be me. to me the release date is when i can buy the CD, so in this case, it's late August.

i didn't like Weekend In the City and the first single from Intimacy is horrible. will still like to hear this one as i loved their debut but not holding out any hope.

Mercury would be wicked if Kele Okereke had died about 9 months ago.

that's just rude

It is, but it's also his fuck-awful singing and melody and lyrics that make it. The arrangement is pretty cool. unlistenable

"trojan horse" is great

wtf with me keeping moving random words around.

LIVEBLOG

1. ares- noisy but cool guitar line, matt bashing the drums around in no real rhythm possibly to overcompensate for his diminished role in the band, kele chanting about wars and stuff and panning all over the speakers. halfway through breaks into strings and kele into falsetto. this would be cool if they even bothered to try out a hook

2. mercury- i don't actually mind this as much as i thought i did, i kind of like the half hook on here (not the "meh-meh-mercury") part. the last half of this is such a mess though i couldn't imagine ever wanting to listen to it ever

3. halo- ok so now we have chunky riffs and matt drumming in rhythm, kele's vocals are buried. this sounds really american alt-rock. hook here is mumbled by kele and dominated by more noisy guitars. riff is almost speed metal. this just sounds like a bad modern american rock song. not feeling this at all. nice, pretty bridge morphs into a weird like, basically metal solo again. no idea what is going on here. dudes sound totally lost.

4. biko- gentle guitar lines strummed out like "this modern love", kele breaking into falsetto a la the backhalf of a weekend in the city, though this time the vocals are processed at times to sound really clipped. at times he speaks into your right ear. computer clicks coming in now. this sounds exactly what i imagine "blue light" would sound like if they wrote it now. processed drums and kele's vocals being run through all types of shit. track climaxes with "resist!". this could be really pretty but its just kinda ugly again as it goes along.

5. trojan horse- really really like this song. can't hear exactly what kele is saying, but its pretty sublime when he breaks into the loopy chorus. also the solos at the end are great. one of the best songs they've written post-silent alarm

Want to give the album a second listen before I post any thoughts on it, but I think the back half might be the (marginally) stronger one. I don't hear much Silent Alarm anywhere though, despite their claims to the contrary.

6. signs- starts out with twinkling bells, bassline pulsating in, fake strings, kele's vocals are almost unintelligible again. track is basically built on a glockenspiel loop it seems like, as it would be in the middle of the album after all. the ballad of new bloc party, this is. when he stops singing this becomes kind of great actually. vocals basically now ambient. like this one a lot. ok now we are coming to some type of build up. i am nervous that they will ruin this. ok its more fake keyboard strings. this doesn't go anywhere and really doesn't try to. at the end kele's vocals sound like soft like a boy's. certainly the best ballad they've written since the first album.

7. one month off- really processed riffs here. all instruments made to sound electronic. this is like third album bloc party version "luno" or "price of gas". just pretty straightforward, can make out "i can be as cruel as you". riff is kind of annoying in a more speed way. ok choppy "price of gas" guitar coming in now, this might end up to be okay. i guess this wants to be a stomping rocker but is just totally uninteresting with a chorus that never really takes off. "fighting life with lies"

Moving backwards the second time round, because hell, why not?

10. Ion Square: I Still Remember, minus the lushness with some propulsive repetitive drums and piano that come off a bit Postal Service-y. I keep waiting for it to explode into a glorious Bloc Party chorus and it never does. A chorus a la This Modern Love or even The Prayer would help much of this album immensely. Instead there's just this perpetual build which leads into a repeated line with lots and lots of layering. It's actually a decent way to end the album, but it just reminds me of Rhododendrons which is one of my favourite post-Silent Alarm, and this isn't as good.

8. zepherus- starts off with kele cooing, now fake drums come in with more cooing in the background. kele's vocals are clear on this one over nothing but these looped vocal coos and a drum machine. again, nothing really memorable here. man this sounds like some gothic voldemort shit. no idea what the hell is going on here. choral chants + strings here. totally forgettable this one.

9. better than heaven- more drum machines and "atmosphere". kele kind of moaning. chorus is processed as fuck. this is totally pointless.

ok the last half of ^^this song explodes into a "plans" type jam which they still do extraordinarily well. maybe this album's best example of them needing to put the drum machines away and write a fucking rock record

9. Better Than Heaven: Kele alternating between singing and intoning phrases in a vaguely menacing voice. Chorus "you get tired the smarter you get" "there was a time before we were born we stood in the garden." It's all very twinkly and then out of nowhere we get a guitar solo with pounding drums and if it felt remotely connected to the rest of the song, it would rock. blazes out strong, but wastes the first two-thirds trying to be moody and landing somewhere around pointless

alex otm about ion square

8. Zephyrus: Didn't we already do this better in The Prayer? The two-step-ish beat over gothic monk choir thing worked as an off-kilter up-tempo number. The beat is a reject from Burial's last album, and Kele whines some more. "quietest voice...I needed you as much as they do." Kele's lyrics were best when they were muffled, vague and impressionistic. the weakest part of Weekend in the City was his attempt to write anthemic and emotional and accomplish stilted and awkward. this is no better.

J0rdan's OTM about the first half, so never mind. unless some hidden genius reveals itself, no further comment on Intimacy is needed.

anyway, someone needs to waterboard kele until he decides to stop doing this Experimentation thing, cuz usually when they just revert here to being a rock band-- minus drum machines and running their guitars through computers an shit-- they are still sublime and uplifting. there are like, maybe 2 or 3 songs here that stand up w/ weekend in the city stuff and barely anything, except maybe "trojan horse", that fucks w/ silent alarm.

reserve the right to like this more than i do now etc etc

The real shame about this album is that it really didn't have to be this boring.

Some of the b-sides from Weekend ran with the more electronic stuff in interesting directions and combined them with Silent Alarm structures to make quality songs. Flux worked for me, and Mercury would have if it weren't for Kele. As much as I dug his yelp on Silent Alarm, and found some of his stuff on Weekend to his the mark, the best thing for future Bloc Party output might be to just get him to shut up.

they are all smart dudes, dunno why they are under the illusion that drum machines and processed riffs and vocals make things more interesting, esp when you are a really good modern rock band. this is just completely totally baffling at points, and makes me appreciate a weekend in the city more than i already do.

yeah "flux" is great! its just a straightfoward song with a good keyboard line. dunno why they need shit like kele speaking into your right ear like a deadpanning robot

Also, while I agree that Trojan Horse is probably the best thing on the album, "You used to take your watch off when we made love, you didn't want to share our time with anyone, etc. etc." has all the hallmarks of Kele's awful poetry. Too many words, no layers, just plain on the surface and nothing TO it anymore.

Part of me might have taken an album of Mercurys even if they all failed. Mercury at least gave me hope of an interesting failure. Ares and Mercury might be shit, but at least they make an effort, I guess.

J0rdan, can we blame Jacknife Lee for starting this shit?

i blame jacknife lee for totally fucking up a weekend in the city, which would be a great rock album if not for just completely egregious production, as has been noted on ilm thousands of times.

as far as his electronic leanings go, i don't really know much about lee's background, but i'm pretty sure it's really kele pushing shit this way, though otoh, a good producer would say "you know, we don't need to run all these vocals through a processor" or what have you. paul epworth did production on this too.

basically, i place the blame on kele. and as an indebted fan, i hope this is just a phase and they eventually yearn to go back to writing good rock records, though i doubt it.

is there any indication as to who did what, or do we have to wait until october to get that?

("you're not doing this alone" on biko is this modern love, but ridiculous)

yeah i didnt see any credits or anything, and wikipedia has nothing

its funny that this thing is called "intimacy" considering how aggro it is. if lots of it sounded like "signs" i think it could've been pretty good

Someone needs to explain to Kele & co that 'experimenting' doesn't have to mean pissing about with a drum machine and a computer. You can experiment with a regular guitar, bass, and drums lineup if you've got ideas.

This is all looking a bit 'first reaction to Kid A'.

haha maybe ill like this by october!

Hahahahahaha

matt bashing the drums around in no real rhythm

Dude he's doing Tomorrow Never Knows/Setting Sun practically beat for beat.

The opening lines of Trojan Horse are beyond terrible.

yeah thankfully you can't hear his vocals on the rest of the song, and the last minute is great

I can't be arsed to listen any further. Ares was the only one I particularly liked, which is a shame as I want to go 'ARSE MORE LIKE'. Most of these tracks would be better without Kele, he seems to have totally lost the knack of working his vocals to the music (rhythmically, melodically, lyrically, even his phrasing is terrible) and it just doesn't work.

their best album by an absolute mile. i'm no bloc party fan usually.

Haven't had a chance to listen to the whole album yet, but "Ares" sounds pretty cool.

Just saw the boys of Bloc Party play an insane show tonight, and the verdict is (tentatively) that about half of the new stuff translates QUITE well live. Namely, the uptempo numbers, which lose their glitchy electronic vocoder shit and turn into Silent Alarm-era rockers. Signs and Biko, etc. do NOT, and were total mood killers.

Two or three encores, over half of silent alarm and choice tracks from Weekend more than redeemed the set, so overall no harm done.

I'm giving parts of Intimacy a second look.

I need to hear this I guess.

its funny that this thing is called "intimacy" considering how aggro it is.

― J0rdan S., Thursday, 21 August 2008 10:18 (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

One for the 'out of context' thread?

Two or three encores

For some reason this really annoys me. Bands who have released three albums, none great, should not be performing two or three encores. Especially three.

"MORE!!! MORE!!!"

"no seriously guys, we're not that good..."

Encores is something I've written about in the past. They seem mandatory at every gig these days; I'd much rather only get one once in a while, so it feels special. Best encore I've experienced was an Embrace gig in 1997; they didn't have any songs left to play, so just did One Big Family again, and it was awesome.

You know what,...

The best and finest encore is when the band come back on (after playing one encore, perhaps), and thank the audience for coming and appreciation etc, wish them a good night, and leave.

i've been watching a bunch of prince bootlegs and prince was doing 2 - 3 encores (basically a whole 'nother set) in damn 1981!