Bloc Party - 'Silent Alarm' (Wichita)
5/5
By: Tim Dellow
The times, they are 'a changing. A simple phrase that contains a plethora of multiple meanings. I'm not going to use it to suggest that things are changing for the better, and that this album will help bring about that change through documenting the new voice of youth. That would be too obvious. But this album reflects more than it refracts, and demonstrates how our times change us.
No longer can we separate the personal from the political, and perhaps more than ever our inner most thoughts are affected, perhaps even created by our surroundings.
On 'Positive Tension', a lover's argument is instigated by apathy, a drive for consumerism and the obvious failings of the flesh, caused by chemicals in our foods, adverts on TV and the rallying around a non-existent war.
'Something glorious is about to happen,' yelps Kele over a bludgeoning bass assault, attempting to convince himself and his lover before conceding that; 'You cannot run or ever escape,' leading up to the most catty, frustrated explosion perhaps ever recorded, 'Why do you have to get so hysterical, why d'ya have to get... so f**king useless.' A spasticated spluttering, a desperate search for words to convey the inexpressible, the line perfectly encapsulates the album's angst at being a romantic human being, in such a cold, detached world. And the music matches that.
'Helicopter', 'Banquet' and the 'Price of Gas', re-iterate the uncontrollability of the modern condition, and how everything, everything, is governed by society; love, sex, personal evolution. The explicit allusions to erotic practices, the appeals for hard f**ks followed by soft kisses, the teeth-grinding arguments followed by visions of open skies, the erratic nature of this modern love, leaving us as unfamiliar, detached creatures; staring out at a beautiful skyline from an East End high rise.
Yet in the classic sense of an album's construction, 'Silent Alarm' is a complete failure. Thrown from one extreme to the other, disjointed, vast gaps between songs, no linear narrative thread; it's a difficult album to immediately like. But, that's its appeal. As a disparate selection of songs to punctuate your early mornings on the underground, your walks across Waterloo Bridge, your subway moping around the gigantic metrop-o-monster that is Old Street station, it's ideal. As a collection designed for our modern snapshot shuffler listening habits, (influenced this time by the technology of the MP3), this is the future of what constitutes an album.
The attention is placed on the individual songs; each one has a place in your life, each one grants you the satisfaction that someone empathises, someone knows what it's like, and that if we're governed in every sense by a wider society, freedom comes from creating our own society, our own community.
This is the only hope that's offered. And it's all you should take. Because it's true. And this is one of the only bands ever, who have the courage to tell you that truth. Because it's not easy. Anyone can scream that 'this is for the poor', and attempt a rebellion, performing as a 'rock-star' as an alternative from their comfy thirty-grand job. But very few people, real people, can whisper in your ear that 'we sit and we sigh and nothing gets done, we just get old,' and hold your hand and hope. Bloc Party offer this assurance. And we all need that.
Artists in this article: Bloc Party
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