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.
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