Review of Bloc Party's 'Four' and a few discussion points

I think it's dangerous to judge an album soon after it's release (Four was only released the Monday just gone), but at the same time I think it's good to discuss an album soon after it's release as that's when your emotions are all over the place like a typical Skins episode. Block Party's new LP, Four, could not be more of a case in point.
Those who follow me on Twitter (@wgsa_musicblog) would have seen I wasn't the most enthused about the new release from Bloc Party. I started proceedings Tweeting about the new single Octopus, saying 'Really not convinced, not a fan at all. It just feels like something is missing? Lacks 'oomph'.' My next Bloc Party-related Tweet was about the other song they unveiled before the LP came out, Day Four: 'If this and Octopus are anything to go by, I'm no longer looking forward to Bloc Party's new LP, Four. Very ordinary.' And then lastly, ever the optimist, I Tweeted '4 songs in and Bloc Party's new album is going to have to do a hell of a lot for me not to consider it a disappointment. It sounds confused?'
Now, the bizarre thing is, is that although I still think two of my three aforementioned Tweets ring true (which I'll get to later), my opinion of the album has changed. And changed dramatically. I still maintain that Octopus is a bit rubbish (credit where it's due, though - it certainly got people talking) and I still maintain that Day Four is very ordinary indeed (perhaps it was to show that Bloc Party still had their Bloc Party sound and not all of the album was like the slightly deranged Octopus), it's my third and final Tweet that is of the most importance - because my word, this album's a grower.
This is not to say, though, I no longer think it's confused. I'm very undecided about albums that chop and change in a major way and, unfortunately for my sanity, I've been discovering a few as of late. Whilst Gotye has the just as depressing as it is famous Somebody That I Used To Know (I've no need to insert a YouTube link here, do I?) on his Making Mirrors LP, he also has I Feel Better (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRC--2qC_Qs) that could well be a Cee Lo Green song in disguise. Cee Lo Green, of course, being the man who made a revenge song as cheery as this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc0mxOXbWIU). And then there's Internet Explorer man Alex Clare, and his The Lateness of the Hour LP, who fooled us into thinking his album was going to be full of big dubstep drops and hard drum and bass beats (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYXjLbMZFmo), whereas really it was closer to being something which mothers can be put their children to sleep to (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5Jr4xIc-Zs), especially the latter half. I'm massively of the opinion that what you listen to is determined by how you're feeling, and what use is a pretty song about hummingbirds (see previous link) when you want to get down and skank with your mates (see song before previous link)? But at the same time I'm also of the opinion that bands who do an album which doesn't extend beyond three chords are dangerously close to going from talented to talentless. The phrase 'one tricky pony' has good reason to exist, after all. Granted very little time has passed between the two albums and it was always going to be difficult to reach beyond the very inward thinking genre they now form a very big part of, but I feel desperately sorry that so little has changed between The Vaccines' first album (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VI3q4T-1Jc) and their incoming second album (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFUKrsDDChE). Listen to the first album the whole way through and the tracks do eventually seem to magically merge into one.
But back to Bloc Party's new LP. Whilst there is much to suggest it is really a rather hard rock album (opener So He Begins To Lie, Kettling to a degree, Coliseum, We Are Not Good People are all on a par with Talons (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTwFE_8v8Bc) when it comes to rocking out and inevitably doing appropriate amounts of damage in the mosh pit), there are several other tracks which suggest quite the opposite; Octopus is just plain odd, Real Talk is clean-cut, refined and sophisticated, Day Four is just plain dreamy, you'd struggle to find a chorus more cheery than that of V.A.L.I.S.'s, and The Healing just plods along slowly but surely, much in contrast to the aforementioned infuriated as it is infuriating We Are Not Good People that follows and in turn finishes the album rather abruptly.
In conclusion, then, I feel Four can only be regarded as a grower. To start, it's a little intimidating - due to it's 'all about the place' nature, initially it's difficult to pin down and really love. But give it a good few listens and this will soon start to disappear as you start to get familiar with its slightly crooked ways. But although it's the complexity of the album that prevents it from being samey, it's also what prevents one from really being able to love it and grow attached to it - like a dysfunctional family, the songs work if you take them individually (or even as pairs or threes and fours), but put them together they just don't fit. But perhaps this was always going to be the case, given that the band were not so far away from being my metaphorical dysfunctional family themselves (http://www.nme.com/news/bloc-party/59330)? Yeah, I'm definitely using that 'dysfunctional family' line again sometime.

Would be good to know people's thoughts, be it about the album itself or anything I've discussed in this post, so catch me on Twitter (@wgsa_musicblog) or on the comments below.

Quick update and Best Coast article

Those who are eagle-eyed will have noticed that although I've been fairly active on Twitter (Tweeting about anything and everything, it seems), this blog hasn't received the most lovin' as of late. As in getting-on-for-two-months 'as of late'. There goes my 'I'll update my blog regularly' idea. It's because I've been rather busy. Now that I've graduated (strangely enough, my last post was written just a couple days after the big day), I've been embracing what some people like to refer to as 'real life' and, strangely, enjoying it. Over the last two months or so, I've been working at various magazines in big ol' London Town. I started off at The Fly ( http://www.the-fly.co.uk/), which was cool because it was the first time ever I was experiencing office life (the closest I had been to before that was an interview for an internship at Dazed,  http://www.dazeddigital.com/). Then came FHM ( http://www.fhm.com/) - absolutely incredible, had an absolute blast there (as you'd expect). Highlights have got to be going to a typical FHM photoshoot, if you catch my drift (every boy's dream, but keeping it strictly professional, of course?), and not only making an appearance in the magazine itself, but having a whole page of me (albeit ludicrously sweaty) surrounded by the word 'epic' ( https://twitter.com/wgsa_musicblog/status/231316332401016832). Then came FourFourTwo ( http://fourfourtwo.com/) - great fun, especially scoring the last minute equaliser in Thursday lunchtime's office football and what with the new season very much up and coming. Then, lastly, was T3 ( http://www.t3.com/) where I got to write about such things as what should be on Football Manager 2013 and what the ten best zombie video games are (hardly counts as work, does it?). I only finished there on the Friday just gone, and they worked me very hard, so you can see a good lot of what I've written online. T3 was my last bit of work experience of what felt like a summer of work experience, so now I've got a fair bit of spare time I hope to write for this blog a good deal more, in between searching for more longer term things, such as internships and 'real life' jobs.

Thought it'd be good to get some writing on here so you'll find below a piece I wrote for a new magazine called tmrw. Great little mag (the editor, Joe, has just released it's first ever issue, which you can get at http://www.tmrwmagazine.bigcartel.com/) - it's all about new music and men's fashion, which is pretty much everything you need ever. Unfortunately my piece didn't make the cut this time around (Joe and I only discussed me doing a piece literally the night before the print deadline), but hopefully I'll be in the next issue. I gave him a bunch of ideas and he liked the idea of me discussing/introducing Californian surf popsters Best Coast (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y18C089tt9Y&feature=plcp) from a British perspective (our 'great' British summer makes sure surf pop isn't the easiest of genres to relate to) the best, so that's (unsurprisingly) what you'll find below. I've got a lot of ideas flying around at the moment (currently really enjoying music in general), so be sure to check back sometime soon.

'Us Brits do have it hard when it comes to the season that is Summer. First, of course, there is the issue of it being fairly non-existent (kind of essential). Second, when the glorious rays finally feel like hitting our shores, we’ve no music to accompany them! Sure there’s The Kooks but... Well, they’re The Kooks. And then there’s our old failsafe, Jack Johnson, but he hasn’t released anything substantial for a good couple years now. Which means we’re going to have to take the plunge and see what our friends from across the pond are licking their melting ice creams to. Now, given that the beats of the likes of 2 Chainz and Childish Gambino aren’t really appropriate and it’s probably best to steer clear of anything even resembling the catastrophe that is Nicki Minaj for fear of catching something, the safest bet is probably with surf pop. But still our dilemma is not entirely resolved. Take the band who many regard as the face of surf pop, The Drums, for example. First, there’s the lyrics – I might be mistaken, but I’m not convinced much, if any, of our dear population can really relate to Jonny Pierce’s pleas to go surfing (as demonstrated, unsurprisingly, on their 2009 breakthrough single Let’s Go Surfing). And then there’s a few components of the actual music that I feel would not go down so well – given that over the years we’ve produced such gutsy rock bands as The Rolling Stones and The Who, it’s likely that most would prefer to avoid outfits who sound like they’re playing their drums and guitars with sprained wrists (again the reference to The Drums’ Let’s Go Surfing comes in handy). It is at this point I can happily introduce the answer to everything ever, Best Coast. The band over two albums – 2010’s debut Crazy For You and this year’s follow-up, The Only Place – have demonstrated that surf pop doesn’t have to be all flimsy and lacklustre (their breakthrough single, Boyfriend, was even verging on being rather rocky). This is made only more remarkable when it is considered lead singer Bethany Cosentino only has Bobb Bruno on the drums for company. Sure there are a few differences between the band and us, the British listeners, that have potential to alienate (the band’s lead single from their recent LP is an almost three minute long ode to their native California), but what matters is that the band play their instruments with conviction and yet still we can reap the rewards of Best Coast essentially remaining a surf pop band. So not only do we have one over our American brothers in that we get to pick and choose what music of theirs we actually like, our hands do not become all sticky due to our ice creams melting because it’s simply not hot enough. No wonder it’s called the great British summer.'