Evening.
I've been away for the last week or so in Glasgow and I'm flying back out there tomorrow for another week. I did promise myself when I started this blog that I was gonna give it regular input or not at all. Therefore before I sit down and write a little exposé on the joys of Glasgow, here's another album review I wrote a while back.
It's early 2005, and I'm watching Keraang. Sitting through a brutal assault of rip-off British faux-Emo music and rock pretension. That all changed when Bloc Party's unapologetic sex anthem "Banquet" thrust it’s way into my consciousness with its unashamedly melodic chorus that dared you not to take notice.
And with that I bought "Silent Alarm" an album that was so under the radar, that not even the most optimistic music insider would have predicted it as a critical and commercial success. Yet it was, and still is, a benchmark of Original British Punk Nuveau (tm). Unlike anything ever heard, the album violated your expectant senses with an eclectic, archaic, varied yet strangely familiar set. From the haunting "Compliments," to the anthemic "Modern Love" it was the soundtrack to my generation and quite honestly unpigeonholable (tm).
Now, whether it be the bitter disappointment in the commercial anticipation of the Killer's "Sam's Town," or the bands legendary reticent attitude towards the media, their album has approached the stage with minimal interest. And does their scarcity of commercial posturing indicate an album without confidence? Quite the opposite, I believe that here we have a band so at the peak of their ability, so convinced of their music’s relevance that their shy almost taciturn approach to self promotion belies a dauntless belief in themselves. Many people hated Bloc Party on the merit of Kele’s sententious and abrupt disposition. An indication of a society in which the quality of bands music is measured by the listener’s ability to idolize, and live the Rock Star life by proxy.
But what of the music…?
My main critique of Sam's Town was that Flower and Co used everything at their disposal to make their sound different, yet Kele and Co have spent 2 years writing music that sounds identical to their first offering. Lack of originality can't be said when a bands sound is so incomparable to any other music that listeners have difficulty comprehending its genius. Again there is a mixture of atmospheric, anthemic and communicative music that makes their lyrical eccentricity a joy to listen to. This time they have a theme of city life running through the album, linking songs which are musically eclectic into clear social comment. From their first single "The Prayer," an ode to basically getting drunk and trying to pull, to the beautiful "Sunday," a lazy story of waking up hung-over, the album never loses focus.
If they keep up this high standard of original lyrical and current music, whilst retaining their reticent attitude toward media whoring, they could well be the new Jam.
Last year I waited 10 months to be disenchanted by The Killer's. This year I was waiting for nothing... long live Kele and Co's indifference to popular opinion
I've been away for the last week or so in Glasgow and I'm flying back out there tomorrow for another week. I did promise myself when I started this blog that I was gonna give it regular input or not at all. Therefore before I sit down and write a little exposé on the joys of Glasgow, here's another album review I wrote a while back.
It's early 2005, and I'm watching Keraang. Sitting through a brutal assault of rip-off British faux-Emo music and rock pretension. That all changed when Bloc Party's unapologetic sex anthem "Banquet" thrust it’s way into my consciousness with its unashamedly melodic chorus that dared you not to take notice.And with that I bought "Silent Alarm" an album that was so under the radar, that not even the most optimistic music insider would have predicted it as a critical and commercial success. Yet it was, and still is, a benchmark of Original British Punk Nuveau (tm). Unlike anything ever heard, the album violated your expectant senses with an eclectic, archaic, varied yet strangely familiar set. From the haunting "Compliments," to the anthemic "Modern Love" it was the soundtrack to my generation and quite honestly unpigeonholable (tm).
Now, whether it be the bitter disappointment in the commercial anticipation of the Killer's "Sam's Town," or the bands legendary reticent attitude towards the media, their album has approached the stage with minimal interest. And does their scarcity of commercial posturing indicate an album without confidence? Quite the opposite, I believe that here we have a band so at the peak of their ability, so convinced of their music’s relevance that their shy almost taciturn approach to self promotion belies a dauntless belief in themselves. Many people hated Bloc Party on the merit of Kele’s sententious and abrupt disposition. An indication of a society in which the quality of bands music is measured by the listener’s ability to idolize, and live the Rock Star life by proxy.
But what of the music…?
My main critique of Sam's Town was that Flower and Co used everything at their disposal to make their sound different, yet Kele and Co have spent 2 years writing music that sounds identical to their first offering. Lack of originality can't be said when a bands sound is so incomparable to any other music that listeners have difficulty comprehending its genius. Again there is a mixture of atmospheric, anthemic and communicative music that makes their lyrical eccentricity a joy to listen to. This time they have a theme of city life running through the album, linking songs which are musically eclectic into clear social comment. From their first single "The Prayer," an ode to basically getting drunk and trying to pull, to the beautiful "Sunday," a lazy story of waking up hung-over, the album never loses focus.
If they keep up this high standard of original lyrical and current music, whilst retaining their reticent attitude toward media whoring, they could well be the new Jam.
Last year I waited 10 months to be disenchanted by The Killer's. This year I was waiting for nothing... long live Kele and Co's indifference to popular opinion
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