BLOC PARTY
Silent Alarm
Vice
· Everybody is the next somebody.
Let’s get this out right now – everyone is in love with this band except me. Don’t get me wrong, this London quartet is able to compose, perform and produce some really slick tracks, and Silent Alarm features four above average songs: "Banquet" (a catchy track that sounds like every song on my Rock ’84 compilation); "Positive Tension" (a lot of fun, but not nearly as dynamic as it could’ve been); "Pioneers" (an epic song that shows the band at its best); and the poly-sci inspired "Price of Gas" (probably the best use of handclaps and a marching-band beat since "Mickey").
But, as a whole, the album is surprisingly bland and simply not as groundbreaking as everyone claims. It lacks ingenuity and follows a straight-up rock formula that sounds like Radiohead at their best, U2 at their worst and The Killers at the present moment. And can I just say the vocal range of lead singer Kele Okereke is totally weak.
Despite all that, in most places you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything resembling a negative review for this album, with some critics hailing them as the next Franz Ferdinand – yeah, whatever. Bloc Party is capable of making highly commercial music that will no doubt attract a large fan base. Whether that means the band is actually good or not is debatable.
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