Much more polished, serious, and straight-ahead than their initial EPs suggested, Bloc Party's debut album, Silent Alarm, reveals them as a band equally informed by taut art-punk and the grand gestures and earnestness of groups like Coldplay and U2. Though they're not quite as stadium-sized expansive as either of those two bands (yet), Bloc Party sound a lot more comfortable making proclamations like "Positive Tension"'s "Something glorious is about to happen/A reckoning!" than contemporaries like Franz Ferdinand or the Futureheads would be. Silent Alarm is also more varied than Bloc Party's early work indicated it might be, spanning edgy pop, atmospheric allads, and angular, percussive tracks that are all served well by the album's big, layered production. The great single "Banquet" and even better opening track, "Like Eating Glass," put Bloc Party's heart-on-sleeve emotions in the service of tight, energetic songwriting that makes their earnestness a little easier to swallow. The gorgeous allads also make the most of Bloc Party's emotional directness: "Blue Light," "This Modern Love," and "So Here We Are" are some of Silent Alarm's finest moments, with a tension and impact that show how powerful even their softest songs can be. As both the band and album's names imply, Silent Alarm is an overtly political album. Bloc Party fare better than many other bands that dip into that fray, but the results are still mixed: the well-intentioned no-blood-for-oil sentiments of "Price of Gas" are heavy-handed, but "Helicopter"'s Bush-bashing and the antiwar "Pioneers" ("We promised the world we'd tame it/What were we hoping for?") are relatively subtle, and work fairly well as political pop manifestos. As dynamic as Silent Alarm is, it's not perfect: Kele Okereke's yelpy vocals get a little grating on the less melodic songs, and the second half of the album doesn't quite sustain the momentum it had at the beginning, although the bonus remixes of "Plans" by Mogwai, and "Pioneers"" by M83 help make up for this. Although it wouldn't hurt if there were more "party" (the celebratory kind, not the political one) in Silent Alarm, it's still a fine debut album with a lot of passion and polish; it's hard not to respect, if not fully embrace, the intensity and integrity of Bloc Party's music.
BFD 07 Live 105Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View CA, 06/09/2007Yesterday I and a non-mogger friend Patrick enjoyed 11 hours of music at a relatively tolerable festival setting. We roll in a little after noon on a beautiful, sunny day with enough of a breeze in the air that I'm not feeling hot in my black Siouxsie & The Banshees T-shirt. The Matches are just finishing up their dime-a-dozen ...
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un groupe bien sympathique que j'ai découvert grâce au frangin , merci frérot
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I'm the type who is always late to the party. I come when it's sort of a moot point to still try and "arrive"... I know this about myself and I'm cool with it. That's why I can admit (and in public, no less) that I've fallen in love with the alt-rock wunderkinds Bloc Party. I picked up this CD because it was recommended in several interviews by the members of Duran Duran (shut-up, ugly commenta...
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So I was sitting here and I heard Bloc Party on the TV.I'm kind of happy, but kind of sad. I don't like hearing music used for TV commercials, but Bloc Party is good!
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How good is this band, i love these guys. One of the best new acts out there. The whole Silent Alarm album is solid.
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This is a good album to clean the house to.
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This song has just such a powerful recipe, the intro noises are awesome and are matched evenly with a strong and addictive drum beat and some nice little chords that match up. The opening lyrics - "It's so cold in this house" just open up the album perfectly.
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Coming to The Greek Theatre @ the begining of August. The Helicopter video is just too cool to not post
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Riding on the tails of Rawks post on finally getting someone into mog. I fortunatly did not have to wait almost one year to get someone into the fold. Meet http://mog.com/JeffHot he has been lurking for a couple weeks now. Please welcome him!I am posting this song in his honor.Here are some ticket stubs of some shows we enjoyed back in the early 90's when we were going to Art School together in...
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BFD 07 Live 105Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View CA, 06/09/2007Yesterday I and a non-mogger friend Patrick enjoyed 11 hours of music at a relatively tolerable festival setting. We roll in a little after noon on a beautiful, sunny day with enough of a breeze in the air that I'm not feeling hot in my black Siouxsie & The Banshees T-shirt. The Matches are just finishing up their dime-a-dozen ...
More >
So I was sitting here and I heard Bloc Party on the TV.I'm kind of happy, but kind of sad. I don't like hearing music used for TV commercials, but Bloc Party is good!
More >
Coming to The Greek Theatre @ the begining of August. The Helicopter video is just too cool to not post
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i'd hesitate to make claims of being a fanatic of bloc party, but after listening to the prayer (repeatedly) it was hard for me to deny that there was something appealing. i definitely dug the intro beats of the prayer along with its overall gritty feel, but at the same time, it sounded like tv on the radio to me. perhaps it's the accent or just an influence. in any case, after the initial pull...
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This Modern Love :: Bloc Party"Baby, you've got to, be more discerning I've never known, what's good for me Baby, you've got, to be more demanding I will be yours I'll pay for you, anytime I'll pay for you, anytime"
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un groupe bien sympathique que j'ai découvert grâce au frangin , merci frérot
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How good is this band, i love these guys. One of the best new acts out there. The whole Silent Alarm album is solid.
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I wouldn't say that Edmonton is a musical wasteland — far from it, in fact. There are plenty of great bands who make their way through our sleepy little burg. Unfortunately, they usually are not bands I want to see, or they tend to touch down in the middle of the week when there is insufficient time to recover after partying it up right.So one is often left with the option of travelling elsewhe.
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All right, so it's pretty obvious by now that I'm pretty well obsessed with Bloc Party. But here's something I've been wrestling with for a while ...I keep waffling back and forth on which version of "Banquet" I like better:The album version ...... or the Phones Disco Edit off Silent Alarm Remixed (this isn't the official video; there isn't one. Just close your eyes if you have to).Which do you...
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In the vein of "Dear Abby" columns or "Loveline" or even the new MTV series "Man Wife", Bloc Party's Kele Okereke will be spending next week as a bonafide advice columnist for the UK's The Guardian.Next week, he's going to be...
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This is a good album to clean the house to.
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I'm the type who is always late to the party. I come when it's sort of a moot point to still try and "arrive"... I know this about myself and I'm cool with it. That's why I can admit (and in public, no less) that I've fallen in love with the alt-rock wunderkinds Bloc Party. I picked up this CD because it was recommended in several interviews by the members of Duran Duran (shut-up, ugly commenta...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Like Eating Glass |
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| 2 Helicopter |
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| 3 Positive Tension |
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| 4 Banquet |
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| 5 Blue Light |
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| 6 She's Hearing Voices |
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| 7 This Modern Love |
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| 8 Pioneers |
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| 9 Price of Gasoline |
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| 10 Little Thoughts |
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| 11 So Here We Are |
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| 12 Luno |
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| 13 Plans |
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| 14 Compliments |
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Click to purchase…
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 "Silent Alarm")
