Bloc Party's Weekend in the City

I want to like the Bloc Party's second album Weekend in the City. But having listened to the thing I can't imagine any occasion on which I'd actually want to listen to it again. As I get older I get tired of my old Cure records from the eighties, not to mention my parents' old Simon and Garfunkel records from the sixties. But when you're thirty plus years old, nobody from your homeroom class is going to pass you a tape wrapped in a note that fervently explains why they are begging you to hear this new band they've discovered. Where am I supposed to find new music to filter out the dust in my blood?

I clicked on the local "new music" station's website. I ruefully observed that their playlist for the last hour includes music that was new when I was half a lifetime newer. There were two albums available to which one could listen for free: the new Fall Out Boy and my new acquaintances Bloc Party. Since I have heard the name Fall Out Boy a zillion times but couldn't think of a single song they do, I picked Bloc Party. I hate the band name though. Bloc Party is not a political band and it's not a party soundtrack, yet the name blends those two metaphors. It's too clever but at the same time it's meaningless. They should've gone with their old name of Superheroes of BMX if they wanted to be cute.

I don't hate everything about the record. When the guitar kicks in on the first song, "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)" it hints to me something about rocking my ass. But from the same song, the lyrics "when we kiss I feel nothing" echo my lack of enthusiasm. Most of the electronic (ambient?) noises just distract me from the bland musicianship. I'd describe the music most accurately as a "din." But the strange sound at the beginning and end of "Hunting for Witches" is pleasing. And I quite like the singer's British pronunciation of the word "ordinary" from the same song.

Speaking of the singer, let's talk about him for a minute. He has a grating voice. And while many have done much with little in this aspect (see Bob Dylan and Tom Waits) what they lack in vocal chops they usually make up for in lyrics. And these lyrics act as if they were written long ago when the band was in middle school. "Song for Clay" talks about "complete disdain" with unstudied disdain, but it is full of sarcasm without wit. On "I Still Remember," the writer talks of an affair that never happened, saying, "And our love could have soared over playgrounds." These remind me of lyrics translated from the Japanese in some manga on film. Don't you wish your love could have soared over something more than a playground? "Uniform" calls out its fourteen year old listeners by age,

"Why do you go picking fights that you'll lose?
So why do you go thinking thoughts that are above you?
'Cause I was brave, intelligent; I could have been a hero
No-one can be trusted under the age of fourteen,"

talking of how jaded they are but without any convincing emotion. But there is an amazing back up vocal of electronic voices singing something between these lines.

In general the vocals are best when several voices sing, as on "Kreuzberg" when they all come in at the end singing in two octaves the staccato

"After sex
The bitter taste
Been fooled again
The search continues"

When the singing is intentionally without sadness it works. But the singer can't blame his voice on emotion.

I welcome any hate mail regarding my dismal review of your favorite band's new record. After publishing my thoughts on the internet since 2001 I've yet to get any hate mail. But you won't change my mind. I like this album less the more I listen. If I ever get the urge to hear this type of music again I'll just go listen to Franz Ferdinand's first album again. And I still don't know where to get good new music.