new bloc party album - a weekend in the city

For me this album seems like the last album too. Apart from Little Thoughts and Banquet, they haven't got any really, really big pop songs anyway, but as an album, it's not too bad. Though I'd like to hear the properly mixed version when it comes out, to see if it's any better.

nice, but less nice than the previous one :-(

Looks like the earlier one was either complete speculation or one of the selection they had to choose from.

Is that leak by BLOC PARTY or by BLOC PARTY. ?

Anyone else find the track order on this odd? Switch "On" and "Where Is Home" and the two halves almost seem like different bands. Different moods for sure.

I found this article a little disturbing and a little irritating. The former because of McLean's seeming desperation for Kele to say "I fuck boys, don't you fuck boys?", and the second because it makes no mention whatsoever of Luke Sutherland, singer from Long Fin Killie and Bows, who did the intelligent, dreadlocked, black, gay indie singer "schtick" (if there is such a thing) a decade before Kele (not that it makes it any easier for Kele to be who he is), and also did it in Scotland, which I would imagine is a damn site more difficult than doing it in the South East / London. It's such an obvious comparison to make, and I think asking Okereke if he knows of Sutherland and if so how he feels about him would have been a damn site more interesting than the goading that some of the piece borders on.

Also, Jacknife Lee is an awful, awful record producer.

OTM re: the production, though, I'm not really a fan of this band anyway to be honest but it has this bloodless nu-emoish sheen that's just killed any interest for me.

Actually I disagree, shoehorning other artists in there purely on that basis is condescending as fuck.

"Yes, Kele might be...BLACK and GAY!!!1!!"

in my version "england" is essentially doing the "story" work of "where is home"

also all of the lyrics on this record strike me as being quite personal

all of them are about being young and black and gay and going out in the city every night and even in some of the b-sides silent alarm's popularity scrolls by in the background ("success has been cruel" appears in both "cain said to abel" and "once and future king") so, idk, it's pretty much all "personal" lyrics imo, that kind of unmediated expression is definitely what kele was going for but is also ultimately why the album is so awkwardly and clumsily executed bc... he's bad at it. he is constantly telling, never showing, etc. it's kind of the center of everything else that goes wrong with this record, the wild but also oddly-shaped and never quite realized club music excursions that are only made more unwieldy by kele cramming either too few or too many syllables into each line, the choice of songs and the sequence which longs to pull us into this deep sad idea of an album but never actually acquires any focus or direction bc the fast songs are too busy outdoing each other with density and the slow songs just kinda get shuttled between them wherever they arbitrarily fit

A lot of them, yes - 'I Still Remember', 'Kreuzberg', 'On', 'Where Is Home?', even 'The Prayer' all seem to have a lot of personal experience in them. It's one of the big reasons I like the album so much and can forgive some of the lyrics.

(x-post)

the choice of songs and the sequence which longs to pull us into this deep sad idea of an album but never actually acquires any focus or direction bc the fast songs are too busy outdoing each other with density and the slow songs just kinda get shuttled between them wherever they arbitrarily fit

Hmm. I've never found this album to be unfocused - in fact, I think they definitely made the record they set out to make and were happy with the results even if it didn't catapult them to the next level career wise as perhaps they hoped it would. I've always been mostly happy with the artists judgement calls on this record.

i should also say that the telling not showing approach is also responsible for some of my favorite moments of the record like the dumbass-on-paper but gorgeous-in-practice chorus of "kreuzberg"

I've always been mostly happy with the artists judgement calls on this record.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Tuesday, August 21, 2018 9:56 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and i guess i think they had the resources to make a way better record than they did

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP_zrBnC8_0

discipline discipline disappearing echoing echoing exiting

I must add, I think there are a few moments on the record where Kele is singing "in character" rather than as himself. In 'Hunting for Witches', for example. 'SRXT' too, even if he does throw his father's name in there.

'SRXT' is a perfect, if very sad, ending to this record - one of those closers where you have to take a minute or so to gather yourself after the album has finished. The silence after the album has ended ends up being part of the experience.

this is probably my favorite album that kinda sucks

haha yes

that's a good thread idea actually

The odd clunky lyric aside, I actually don't think this album sucks.

(I do wish they'd split up after Moakes and Tong had left, though)

listened to this album for the first time in 12 years last week. i hated it then, but i was 17 so what did i know. I still mostly dislike it but I think it really comes together starting at Kreuzberg, and the last few songs are nice bits of melodrama. maybe it's because the second half is a bit less sonically adventurous than the first half, maybe because they focus less on leaden social commentary, maybe because each song just has 1 good idea in it as opposed to 12 dueling ideas. either way, i definitely appreciate it a bit more than i did then, even though i still think the drums often feel like they're being beamed in from a different planet where a different band is playing a different song.

and i guess brad is otm upthread about the b-sides--my favorite songs on the spotify version, besides maybe srxt, are flux and selfish son

Yeah, there were some fine B-sides around this period, but there's absolutely nothing I would change about this record. The tracklisting as originally released, that is, not the re-release with 'Flux' on it.

need to take a long hard look in the mirror over the fact that none of my previous custom weekend in the city tracklists included "once and future king"

there's always one night per year where the only song i can listen to is "uniform"

it's not as good as any of their records but if you were going to make a timeline of albums throughout history that led to the 1975's career this would have to be on it, which counts as high praise in my book

absolutely