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Bloc Party

*Justine*

By *Justine*
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Larry

Larry

Posted
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Take it you'll be going then Larry? ;)

 

I hope so! Only a handful of bands have been announced so far... ;)

 

Oh Lars.....you are SO going!!!!!!!! :o

 

Ok, I saw them tonight........ I N C R E D I B L E ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Woah........yeah. and no cameras were allowed :( so I couldnt really take any. But they played Blue Light :heart: and Hunting for Witches.

:dance:

 

No surprise you had an amazing time! But why were no cameras allowed? :confused: I never listened to songs of their new album except of "The Prayer". Can't wait to hear them someday. :D

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busybeeburns

busybeeburns

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23v2al03.jpg

 

Bloc Party has really evolved from its debut "Silent Alarm."

 

Instead of the twitchy guitars and the yelping vocals, they've shot for a more accessible approach similar to that of Coldplay or U2.

 

"A Weekend in the City" starts off with a few pulse pounding songs that flat out rock.

 

"Hunting for Witches" starts off with snippets of voices drifting between the left and right channels with a spider web of synths. The voices are similar to newscasters, which Kele Okereke sings about in the song. For a song that calls for blood and talks about sitting on a roof with a shotgun and some beer, it's really addictive to dance to.

 

Standing out amongst the tracks is "Waiting for the 7:18." With it's gradual build from a gentle trickling to an escalating dramatic flood of emotion and sound, as Okereke laments on recalling his past and what he would have done more.

 

The layers of sounds coming out of "A Weekend in the City" are what give this album its longevity. With each listen, voices that you hadn't heard drift in and out. In "The Prayer," there is this alluring hum that backs the rest of the song. It's deep and it gives the song a really wicked sound that draws you in.

 

By the midpoint of the album, things start to drag some with numbers like "Uniform," which doesn't go anywhere and is somewhat full of itself with lines about conformity and how pop songs can't change the government. It's real yawn-worthy stuff.

 

Other tracks like "Kreuzberg" and "I Still Remember" are really mediocre tracks that don't challenge the skill the band possesses. They aren't horrible, but they don't do anything that is as stunning as the rest of the album.

 

The band does stick with hitting the big hook though on songs like "Sunday," where the drums stomp arena rock beats while the guitars tremble before hitting the bright and sunny chorus. It's ethereal and really hits a high mark on the album. "Forget about those melting ice caps/We're doing the best with what we've got," echo with sincerity, but also a sense of living for the day.

 

It's that sincerity and the immense talent of Bloc Party that turn these songs into something much bigger than their individual parts. "A Weekend in the City" is a showcase of what the band can do when they broaden their horizons and don't look back and as the last lines of "SRXT" have dissipated, the only feeling left is that of exhaustion from the journey this album takes any listener on.

 

http://media.www.siude.com/media/storage/paper1096/news/2007/02/07/Music/A.Chip.Off.The.Old.bloc-2701870.shtml?sourcedomain=www.siude.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com

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busybeeburns

busybeeburns

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Bloc Party - Weekend in the City

 

Bloc Party's follow-up to 2004's acclaimed Silent Alarm has been hugely anticipated, and there have been the requisite fears of a disappointing follow-up for the South London quartet; not for a "just more of the same" disappointment, but a Coldplay "pretentious and overblown" disappointment. These fears aren't groundless, as Bloc Party does tend to take itself too seriously.

 

So Weekend in the City arrives to considerable scrutiny. And while the album doesn't exactly disappoint, it certainly does not deliver everything fans would hope from the second Bloc Party album. It doesn't sound as aggressive as much of Silent Alarm did, instead favoring a grandiose style, and for the most part, that's a shame, since nothing on the album quite matches the grandness of "Like Eating Glass" or the Gang of Four-esque snarl of "Banquet."

 

But this is not to say that there are not some very good songs on the album. The opening track, "Song for Clay," while not even comparing to the opening salvo that was "Like Eating Glass," has a heavy riff and a persistent backbeat after the quiet but quite annoying intro ("I am trying to be heroic / In an age of modernity" is the album's first line). Better are the more sincere and intimate songs on the album, like "Waiting for 7:18," "Kreuzberg," and "I Still Remember." They are different than the best songs on Silent Alarm, and though some might accuse them of having the quasi-U2 quality that people feared, they all stand up to repeated listens, giving hope that this entire album will reveal itself over time.

 

http://media.www.bcheights.com/media/storage/paper144/news/2007/02/08/TheScene/Bloc-Party.Weekend.In.The.City-2705810.shtml?sourcedomain=www.bcheights.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com

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