Written
20th August 2012
Bloc Party
- Four
The Band: Kele Okereke (vocals/guitar), Russell
Lissack (lead guitar), Gordy Moakes (bass) Matt Tong (drums)
So today
see’s the long awaited return of Bloc Party with their 4th album the
cunningly named ‘Four’, their first album release since 2008’s last record
‘Intimacy’, making it itself four years since the band last released an
album. The band really made a huge
impact on the UK Indie music scene with the release of their excellent debut
album ‘Silent Alarm’ back in 2005, with early singles ‘Helicopter’, ‘Banquet’
and ‘Two More Years’, really defining a unique “sonic-fused” guitar sound for not
just the band but of any band at the time and rightly receiving a healthy
amount of radio airplay, quickly help gaining the band a loyal army of
followers. This was followed up by
2007’s ‘A Weekend in the City’ another great guitar record but this time the
album felt a bit more mellow and chilled out compared to its predecessor
however this certainly didn’t stop the band achieving further hits with another
batch of great singles ‘The Prayer’, ‘Hunting for Witches’ and ‘Flux’ all being
released. They then went on to release
3rd album ‘Intimacy’ and again showed another slight change in direction, with
an album which had a much more dance vibe to it and more ‘electro’ influenced
tracks than the band had previously done to date but for my money it was still
a great record and I have been patiently looking forward to the release of a
follow-up album and to paraphrase an early track from the band “So Here We Are”
now:
Four
1. So He Begins To Lie
2. 3x3
3. Octopus
4. Real Talk
5. Kettling
6. Day Four
7. Coliseum
8. V.A.L.I.S.
9. Team A
10. Truth
11. The Healing
12. We’re Not Good People
Bonus tracks
13. Mean14. Leaf Skeleton
So as you
can see from the track-listing above, we’re going hardcore today and reviewing
the deluxe-version of the new album featuring two additional bonus tracks which
I’ll also cover as part of this review but in the meantime the album gets us
underway with opening track “So He Begins To Lie”. Ok, so throughout this record the album
features odd little sound-bites of the band in the studio, as is the case here,
before the opening-track picks up with Russell laying down a funky, rocking
guitar riff setting the foundations for the track and providing an early
indication of the guitar-heavy sound that features much more throughout this
record, particularly on the rock-out towards the end of the track. ‘3x3’ follows up next, and features a frantic,
menacing guitar riff from the start, with initially softer vocals from Kele,
giving the track a dark yet moody sense of urgency about it and this is
emphasized further with Kele’s repeated line “No Means No” in the 2nd half of
the track. Despite its dark tones, it’s
an excellent, fast-paced track and progresses the album nicely. Previous single ‘Octopus’ lightens the mood a
little more and features a quirky guitar pedal effect throughout by Russell,
giving the track an overall retro and unique feel to it. With gently backing “Woooo Woooo’s” through
its chorus, and a catchy melody throughout, it’s quite an Indie-pop track and I
can see why the band ultimately used this as a come-back single.
With a
slow, repeating guitar strum throughout it ‘Real Talk’ follows next and sees
Kele again softly-sung here, as his vocals slowly reveals a protagonists true
feelings for a close friend or partner as the track progresses and the track
has a very calm, laidback approach to it with gentle percussion, bass and guitar
nudging it along gently. After, another
brief in-studio sound-bite, we go from the gentle flow of ‘Real Talk’ to the
full on guitar-rock of ‘Kettling’.
Opening with a heavy, monster of a guitar riff the track then sees a
high-pitched guitar riff speeding through its verses with Kele’s vocals over the
top of it, before seeing a guitar solo midway through it. I like this track and it’s one for the guitar
enthusiasts in particular. Again,
entering at a more sedate pace is 6th track ‘Day Four’, with slight jangling
guitar through it, it’s a nice track and for me personally captures some of the
sound the band were previously creating on ‘A Weekend in the City’. I particularly like the hazy, jangly repeating
sounds the band capture and fade-out towards with at the end of the track,
providing the listener was an isolated but relaxing backdrop to close with. ‘Coliseum’ makes an appearance next and is
another slow-burner, with a distant effect used on Kele’s vocals during its
opening. This is before midway through the
track when the band suddenly assaults the listener’s ears with a brutal,
full-on guitar riff bringing back memories of the style of sound used on
‘Silent Alarm’, particularly the track ‘Luno’ (a personal favourite of mine).
Great stuff indeed! ‘V.A.L.I.S.’ slows
the tempo of the album again, with low-fi guitars, bass and percussion giving
the track a catchy tempo. It’s a
pleasant track and again captures the laidback sounds from ‘A Weekend in the
City’.
‘Team A’
is up next and for me it’s one of the standout tracks of the album. Featuring, an alarm-sounding electronic riff
pulsing through it, layered nicely with Russell’s guitar, the track again has
another real sense of urgency about it, defining the eschewed, sonic guitar
sounds that Bloc Party are so well known for.
I was lucky enough to catch the band play an early comeback gig at Koko
before this album’s release and ‘Team A’ was a real standout track for me on
the night, played even faster live and to more effect, than as featured here on
the album, it’s a great track. After the
high off the last track, a comedown is expected, but with the track ‘Truth’,
this actually quite a pleasant experience we get here, as it coasts along with
an assured confidence about itself. ‘The Healing’ is probably the softest track
overall on the album, featuring a mellow guitar riff and an altogether floaty
melody to it. It’s a real nice track that I really quite like but it’s almost like
the calm before the storm as closing track ‘We’re Not Good People’ is a classic
full-on rock track. We’re talking fast,
frenetic no-nonsense rock here that even the Foo Fighters would be proud of! But hold on, we’re not quite done
here just yet, because as I said earlier, this review is covering the
deluxe-version of the album, featuring two bonus tracks and they are certainly
worth covering in my opinion.
Up first
we have ‘Mean’ and this is classic, old-school Bloc Party in my opinion. Featuring a fast, catchy guitar riff at its
heart much like older tracks ‘Helicopter’ or ‘Flux’, it’s therefore a very
instant type of track and found myself enjoying it upon first few listens. Secondly we have the track ‘Leaf Skeleton’
and again this is very much in the mould of old-school Bloc Party, with another
catchy guitar riff pulsing through it at 100mph, this is just simply another
excellent track. I must admit I’m
somewhat bemused as to why the band didn’t decide to include these two
fantastic bonus tracks on the standard version of the album so I would
recommend picking up this version of the album if you can just to hear these
two excellent tracks alone.
So in
concluding, it’s been a long 4-year wait for the return of Bloc Party but has
it been worth the wait? What we have
here is an album that has been carefully crafted together by four excellent
musicians, whom certainly have high standards in the music and unique sound
that they create when they are together.
There was a lot of expectation and second-guessing as to what direction the
band may take with this fourth album and in my opinion they have returned with
a strong guitar influenced album, while still retaining the fast, sonic
melodies that are distinctly Bloc Party.
Also featuring hard and heavy rock tracks, to the more melodic and
chilled out tunes this is arguably the most diverse Bloc Party album to date
and I’m finding I’m appreciating the tracks more on this album with each
subsequent listen. I was initially
considering awarding this album 7/10 but with more listens it’s a definite
grower in my opinion so I’m actually going to give this album 2 lots of Four
out of 10 (see what I did there!)
Real Talk
Flynny
Track 3 ‘Octopus’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkeUFRK4i7w
Track 4
‘Real Talk’ (live from Terminal 5, New York)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhBbVitI0Tk
Track 9
‘Team A’ (live from Koko, London)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tRK1iAIMT8
