Music Review: Bloc Party - Intimacy - Page 2

The album continues its peculiarity and shifts from their previous work until “Halo” hits the speakers - and does so with incredible strength. Featuring guitar work reminiscent of Silent Alarm combined with the electronica elements found in recent releases such as “Flux” and “Mercury,” Bloc Party seems to have found their niche.

It is in this vein that half of the album plays out; loud, fast, furious, and intense. Consequently it is also incredibly catchy and fun, and laced with potential singles. Songs such as “Trojan Horse” and “One Month Off” – the latter featuring the first key change from the Bloc Party - recall the band’s ability to craft intelligent and mesmerizing pop songs with a perfection that defies their young age.



However, the rest of the album is where Bloc Party truly declares its intentions. The drony and ethereal “Better Than Heaven” is a hypnotic song of obsession and possession to a lover – one who seemingly doesn’t care anymore. The track’s dark tendencies are counteracted by its inexplicable provocation to dancing. It is distant and dreamy but ends in the albums most satisfying rock-out sessions backed with enough instrumentation to make even Butch Vigg jealous.

In a similar fashion, the band continues to harness ambiance with “Signs,” that is both the literal and figurative centerpiece of the album. The song begins with, of all things from a guitar band, a glockenspiel. It is then combined with a dark trance-esque delayed bass line and drums. Complete with haunting falsetto during the bridge, the song flows better than it has any right to. The dreamlike soundscapes and rhythm give a sense of floating – or drowning, it is difficult to tell which.



In terms of its lyrical direction, the album deals very much with its title. Reportedly the byproduct of the end of Okereke’s yearlong relationship, its themes range from songs of adoration – as with the closer “Ion Square” – to songs of detest – as with “Trojan Horse.” Sadly, with Intimacy, Okereke’s lyrics are still very literal and often unimaginative. With lines such as “stuck on a dreamland, somewhere it’s better. You’ll be the one missing out” very little is left to personal interpretation. Yet, for much of the album, it is, though inexplicably, fitting for the music.



Article Author: Jon Jacobs

Jon is a fan of nearly every kind of music known to man (and some that aren't). While earning his degree in Public Relations and Mass Communications at Utah State University, Jon started All Things Considered Musically to express his ever-growing …

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