Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

  by Mark Rowland

published: 9 / 2 / 2005

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Review

So much has been written about Bloc Party now that people are starting to get sick of them already. The kind of hype they are getting from the mainstream music press is more of a hindrance in the long term than a help – sure, they’ll sell lots of copies of their first record, but the hype will only be tolerated for so long – in general, the public don’t like bands rammed down their throats. Not that this is Bloc Party’s fault. In a way, they’re just a band who was in the right (or wrong, depending on your point of view) place at the right time. Out of all the bands that dominate the covers of certain magazines at the moment, Bloc Party do seem to have something about them. Although their sound is based in early-80's British post-punk and American new wave, there are elements of bands like Pretty Girls Make Graves in there too, as well as a bit of late Blur (and not just because singer Kele sounds a bit like Damon Albarn). Although they get compared to Franz Ferdinand a lot, there are only small similarities between the two bands, basically through one or two shared influences. In general, ‘Silent Alarm’ is a groovy post-punk album for the emo kids. Most of the songs are about lost love, most prominently ‘Blue Light’, ‘This Modern Love’ and recent hit single ‘So Here We Are’. The fact that the band come across as shy and a bit geeky in interviews reinforces this, which is refreshing considering the level of arrogance in a lot of the new bands at the moment. ‘Silent Alarm’ itself has some great tracks on it. The first five tracks; ‘Like Eating Glass’, ‘Helicopter’, ‘Positive Tension’, ‘Banquet’ and ‘Blue Light’, are excellent, as are ‘This Modern Love’, ‘The Pioneers’ and ‘Price of Gasoline’, but other tracks don’t quite work and are forgotten as soon as they’re finished. This is unsurprising when you remember that this is a debut album and there aren’t many artists that can produce an absolute classic on their first go. Unfortunately, all the hype surrounding Bloc Party leaves you expecting just that, meaning that initial listens are disappointing. Give it a chance and do your best to ignore the hype, and you’ll find that ‘Silent Alarm’ is a pretty damn good debut. Hopefully, we’ll see great things from this band in the future.

Track Listing:-

1 Like Eating Glass
2 Helicopter
3 Positive Tension
4 Banquet
5 Blue Light
6 She's Hearing Voices
7 This Modern Love
8 The Pioneers
9 Price Of Gasoline
10 So Here We Are
11 Luno
12 Plans
13 Compliments

Band Links:-

http://blocparty.com/
https://www.facebook.com/blocpartyoffi
https://twitter.com/blocparty
http://www.songkick.com/artists/443396
https://www.youtube.com/user/blocparty
https://www.instagram.com/thisisblocpa