Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
(2007)

Review by Sean Lynch

There have been far to many times throughout the last year or so where I've reviewed an album rather unfavourably, only to listen to it in greater depth over the following weeks and really regretting my first impressions. But when you only have a few days until a deadline - first impressions count.

So I'm really glad that I held back from immediately lambasting the softmore effort of UK rockers Bloc Party and their latest album "A Weekend In The City". It's always tough following up a debut album like "Silent Alarm" which sold over 1 million copies, was named NME Album of the Year 2005, lived in the UK charts for 69 weeks and contained one of the coolest singles in music to date - Banquet.

And upon the first few spins of "Weekend" there will be more than a few who will write it off pretty quickly. It lacks the pace of the better tracks  on "Silent Alarm", lead singer Kele Okereke throws away his high octane vocals to make way for some broody monotone Cure-esque ditties and there's a terrible stench of "a really important political and social message" within the lyrics.

But once you get past the third or fourth spin, you will start to get into it. Not as a follow up album, but as an album that stands on it's own merits. It's a lot darker and the singles don't jump out at you, but there are some really cool new sounds that standout. 

First single The Prayer is much like Robbie Williams' Rudeboxx in that it's so vastly different (and theres something indescribable that's holding it back from being as good as it should be) to what you're expecting that it puts you off balance for a bit. But, hindsight allows you to realise that it truly sets a mood for the album.

Waiting For The 7:18 has the anthemic guitar which has become synonomous with bands like Snow Patrol and U2 (although, with Jacknife Lee on board as producer, this comes as no surprise), Hunting For Witches uses elements of the chop-changing rhythm and disco-techno which riddle the album, while Song For Clay (Disappear Here) gets the album off to an unexpected rock-out start and is destined for a single release.

Okereke has really gone above and beyond with the lyrics of "Weekend". While not technically a 'concept' album, there is certainly some major themes running through it. Lyrically this has a lot more focus to it than "Silent Alarm" - even if musically, it's all over the shop. On works and really grows on you, the song about getting fucked up on a Saturday night is the ultimate in describing the excitement of the night before the morning after ("Silver slugs lined up like bullets, rolled up twenties they disappear, you make my tongue loose"). SXRT addresses the rather heavy (if not heavily trodden topic) of suicide and serves as an epic ending to a rather dark album.

"A Weekend In The City" certainly won't please everyone and gives off the sense of being the sort of album which gets buried in the CD case within a few months of "giving it a go", but you've got to give it time. It's an album for those rainy days driving to work, an album for getting drunk to, an album to regret the night before to. Ultimately, it's a brave and confident follow up which is brilliant when it gets it right.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5