Bloc Party
I got the new album by Bloc Party on Sunday, rather than getting the Stars album. It was a surprising decision.
I walked into Tower intending to purchase the Stars album, but got distracted on the way by the listening stations. There's always the one good listening station — the “developing artists” one — where they have all the cheap indie releases that are all ten bucks or less.
I had heard of Bloc Party and gave them a whirl. They got off to just the right start because I was in a slightly aggressive mood and the first track begins with quiet rumbling guitars and bass before the drummer comes in and beats the shit out of his kit. Then the singer has a kind of urgent-sounding yelp that is unique because it's emotional without being whiny. And then the second track has these jagged guitars with the same propulsive drumming (if I were a hip kid I'd call them “angular”).
And so I made the decision to buy the album on the spot, which is highly uncharacteristic of me. I normally have a deliberation period before buying an album at full price (even though it was 10 bucks).
Then I picked up the Stars album and it was 16 or 17 bucks and I was all “fuck that shit.”
True story.
But I listened to the album a few times and it didn't really register. It's only in the past few days that I've really started to dig it. Besides the first two tracks, there's this song called “The Pioneers” that is kind of wrenching (in a good way) melodically. And lyrically too, I guess. There's also “Positive Tension” that builds to a pretty cool climax.
The band is really British. The singer is really charismatic and his accent is definitely not lost in his singing — which I like.
I don't really have anything else to say about them. They're kind of Franz Ferdinand-y with a bit of U2 thrown in.