Magazine


Preview: Bloc Party

by David Sue
9/ 2/2007

IF the rest of their indie alternative guitar peers are soundtracking the parties and decadence, it's certainly South London's Bloc Party who provide the harsh reality check.

Their acclaimed debut album Silent Alarm was the dark horse of British pop's healthy resurgence: low on joviality and packed with seriousness.

Thankfully, second album A Weekend In The City (released this week) might finally dispel those earlier notions of Bloc Party as over-reaching, pretentious art students and put them closer to "voices of a generation'' status.

Musically, they're still trading in Gang Of Four post-punk rhythms but their rhetoric seems clearer and taut with anger.

Kele Okereke now sings of 21st century life in much harsher detail: terrorism, new technology, homophobia, racism and the ills of a society in constant fear of itself.

Hopefully, their arrival in Manchester on Valentine's Day might drag Bloc Party out of their self-conscious seriousness. But don't bank on it.

Bloc Party are at The Academy 1 on Wednesday.


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