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Member since:01.05.2005
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'Silent Alarm' is Bloc Party's debut studio release and was released through Wichita Records in early 2005. It's a thirteen track album of indie rock and the run time of this album release from the band is just over 50 minutes. Before I opted to give this album a listen I remember that there was a lot of hype surrounding this release, Bloc Party's 'Silent Alarm' album was one which was loved by many when it was released; the album also has its haters and I guess you could say that this debut release from Bloc Party is a bit of a Marmite album in that you'll probably either love it or you hate it. Personally, I find the album really quite average. The tracks are pretty good, they all follow the same indie rock formula however and by the times you reach the end of the album you've ultimately listened to the same track thirteen times over. There are some tracks that are a little better than others, the variation is distinctly lacking however and pretty much every track possesses the exact same song structure. There are a couple here that break free of the Bloc Party formula and therefore stand strong as definite highlights from this release, these tracks are few and far between however and 'Silent Alarm' is just really rather bland.
In terms of highlights I'd have to say that such tracks as 'Like Eating Glass', 'Luno', and 'Banquet' are the most magnificent of the bands tracks here; 'Luno' and 'Banquet' are quite different to the vast majority of the tracks present on this album, they do however sound incredibly
similar to one another so even when the bands tries out something a little bit different it's decided that this new idea should be tested out twice. There's a definite lack of ideas displayed here; the guitar work is quite powerful, the vocals do not however change from one track to the next and it's therefore difficult at times to tell exactly where one track ends and the next track begins. The vocal performance is soulful and quite melancholic; the vocals are pleasant to listen to and at times the tracks are great fun to sing along to. 'Like Eating Glass' has the fantastic sing along chorus of 'Like drinking poison, like eating glass'; it's magnificently put across here by the bands lead vocalist Kele Okereke and is I feel the best example of the bands infectiously catchy choruses. It's not exactly bouncy or highly commercial, the track does however possess a strong melody and every time I listen to this track I can't help but sing along as I do so.
'Like Eating Glass' is actually the opening track on this album, it's followed by 'Helicopter' and once more here the bands fine sound really comes across incredibly well. The song structure is strong here and everything about the track is just absolutely excellent. The drum work is brilliant, the guitars are supremely well put across in the sound, and vocally also the track is just here absolutely exceptional. The bands super drum work is actually the reason that I love 'Luno' and 'Banquet' so much; both of these tracks possess absolutely blinding drum work and from start to finish with these two tracks you're in for a thrill ride of action and excitement with the super strong drum beats that the bands sound has to offer here. In both of these tracks the drumbeat is actually the main sound that can be heard; all other instruments and the vocals also seem to be moulded around the drums and the drums are very much the centrepiece of the bands sound and brought completely to the fore at all points throughout the duration of these two tracks.
The music is not badly put across by Bloc Party here, the sound is actually incredibly intelligently constructed by the band and it's therefore all the more frustrating that the tracks are all just so stylistically similar. This is a band that I do believe possesses a high level of talent, the talent of the bands four members is not best used here however as over and over the band persistently put out the same track time and time again. As I've already stated; 'Luno' and 'Banquet' are two tracks that break the formula a little, I can barely tell the two tracks apart however and on the two occasions that the band does break its mould and does tread new ground; the exact same ground is trodden. The band lacks ideas and the music therefore lacks excitement, instrumentally and vocally it's quite a good album but is spoilt very much so by the repetitive nature of the music. Were the tracks a little more varied in sound then I'd most definitely enjoy listening to this album a whole lot more, as it stands however the tracks all sound pretty much the same and they're therefore not particularly interesting to listen to at all. There's only so many times you can hear the same track repeated on an album before you begin to become a little tired of the music that you're hearing.
I would not recommend listening to Bloc Party's 'Silent Alarm' album entirely in one sitting; it'll be fifty minutes of music with very little variation and you'll therefore probably want to take a break from listening from time to time. No track is bad as such here, it's just that there's no telling the tracks apart and the bands lack of creative diversity displayed here is therefore extremely frustrating. You want for the bands to push boundaries with the music, the band just doesn't do that however and instead Bloc Party plays it safe as a band by putting to record the same track eleven times over, and a slightly more drum heavy track two times also. There are thirteen tracks here and yet the band only seems to make two different types of sound with its tracks; there's 'Banquet' and 'Luno', and then there's the rest of the album; there's no middle ground and only two musical formulas are experimented with here. I'd heard people rave about this album, I expected so much more, as it turns out however; Bloc Party's 'Silent Alarm' album is a creatively lacking debut album from a band with a severe lack of musical ideas.
Bloc Party is a highly talented band, 'Silent Alarm' does however lack creative innovation and with so many of the tracks sounding the same here it's very difficult to really love this album. I like 'Silent Alarm', it's nothing special though really and due to the limited display of ideas here the album can at times prove to be a little on the bland side. 'Like Eating Glass', 'Luno', and 'Banquet' are three tracks that you should really seek to listen to, these are the best tracks from the album in my opinion and whilst all the music present here is quite interesting to listen to; 'Silent Alarm' definitely does get a little boring after a while. Any one of these tracks could be listened to singularly and enjoyed, as an album however the tracks are all too similar and the albums largest failing is therefore that the music is just too stylistically similar and creatively unimaginative.
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Styled more along the lines of a revolutionary cell than a band, Bloc Party approach the ... more
medium of rock'n'roll with the sort of high seriousness usually reserved for philosophy lectures. Yet on their debut album,Silent Alarm, this "autonomous unit" of ...
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Styled more along the lines of a revolutionary cell than a band, Bloc Party approach the ... more
medium of rock'n'roll with the sort of high seriousness usually reserved for philosophy lectures. Yet on their debut album, Silent Alarm, this "autonomous unit" of...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Advantages: It's an excellent album, totally different to everything else. Contains one of the best song's I've heard in years Disadvantages: A few tracks take their time to grow. Instantly compared to bands like Franz Ferdinand and The Killers, without being judged on its own merit
Advantages: Lyrically and vocally compelling.Sounds bit like Joy Division, Sonic Youth, The Cure and such like Disadvantages: The vocals can sometimes bit a bit shouty and musically they aren't that impressive or different.
Advantages: It's an excellent album, totally different to everything else. Contains one of the best song's I've heard in years Disadvantages: A few tracks take their time to grow. Instantly compared to bands like Franz Ferdinand and The Killers, without being judged on its own merit
Advantages: Lyrically and vocally compelling.Sounds bit like Joy Division, Sonic Youth, The Cure and such like Disadvantages: The vocals can sometimes bit a bit shouty and musically they aren't that impressive or different.
Jul 11th, 2008
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