Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City

When ‘Song For Clay (Disappear Here)’ bursts from soaring vocal in to a pounding post-rock style dive, it’s obvious that ‘Weekend In The City’ isn’t the tame pet that ‘Silent Alarm’ became as it dabbled its paws in indie discos everywhere.

But it’s not a paranoid beast, either. For all the assessment of Kele Okereke’s considerably darker lyrics - some of which don’t quite succeed - the musical aspect is paradoxically uplifting. It’s not as if ‘Hunting For Witches’’ ‘fear will keep us all in place’ doesn’t still provide room for limb flailing. With its dancier beat and erratic time signatures, it’s more full workout than dancefloor dabble.

‘The Prayer’ fits in to the same mould. Twiddling in the interim but with a chorus that’s a leech rather than a grower. Even the album’s ‘lengthy slow one’ takes a blasting turn. It’s not just the arrangements that have got complex on tracks like ‘Uniform’, but the competency with which they are delivered. Closer ‘SRXT’ even sounds like something Explosions In The Sky might dabble with in their poppier moments. While some may cry ‘overproduced’, it’s quite the opposite. Electronically embracing, yes. A clean cut product of a super machine? Certainly not.

And if you’ve got doubts about the oddly uplifting nature of ‘A Weekend In The City’, ‘I Still Remember’ is a must. The effort’s ‘This Modern Love’, it wavers delicately with a big old fashioned rousing ending. While ‘Sunday’ follows this formula perhaps a little too closely, it’s to the same lovely effect.

This is Bloc Party’s stream of consciousness. Shufflers sit and listen to every hit or miss lyric, every fizzing guitar line and every punching drum beat. That’s how this album is best. And at it’s best, it’s ace.