Bloc Party

Infectious / BMG 2022

I’m going to go full on Claude Bessy here and just say it, there was never such a thing as indie rock. The same goes for alternative and new wave before that. “It was the polite thing to say when you are trying to explain you were not into the boring old rock-n-roll…” you know the rest. All three of these genres signified a time period or era rather than a genre. Indie was a total misnomer. That being said, Bloc Party is definitely a notable band and they definitely had a few songs that fashion school girls with mod haircuts loved. I lost track of this band in the mid oughts after all the hipster clubs stopped playing songs from Silent Alarm and a decade of post-punk revival came to a close. From what I gather everything after Silent Alarm was pretty terrible and this is a return to the band’s roots as far as its use of punchy vocals, disco-inspired rhythms, and warring guitar riffs. It’s not a bad album. There’s some fun music here. They close with a really dimly romantic swan song that actually does an excellent job at letting the listener knowing that there is a purpose underlying the music which takes the form of a finger plucking crescendo and a cantata fueled by jilted scorn. The last song is actually really good. The album seems to be closure for a band that never took off like other bands in the genre within the mid ought’s wave of post-punk and I’m sure there’s a bit of regret as well.

7/10