illusionofjoy | OTR: Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City

A Weekend in the City is Bloc Party's proper follow-up to Silent Alarm (there was a remix album released in between the two, but remix albums don't count). Kele Okereke sings more than yelps this time around while the band as a whole has thickened their sound, mixing U2 in with their Gang of Four aesthetic. Thematically, Weekend is a loose concept album - a "slice of life" record akin to Moby's Last Night, but with a mood which much more closely reflects Porcupine Tree's Fear of a Blank Planet (that is to say that the kids aren't all right).

So, does the concept work? Yes and no - this album doesn't tell a specific story, but it really matters not to me when a band can turn out such a great batch of songs. It's hard for me to find albums I can listen to all the way through any more, and this is one of the few that fits the bill. Furthermore, the band has deigned to change their approach somewhat; while Silent Alarm was all guns blazing all the time with few exceptions, Weekend follows a mood curve from the nervous excitement of going out on the night to the ennui being in the "scene" to the afterglow in the stark light of morning.

Advance single "The Prayer" is an adolescent wish list - "is it so wrong to crave recognition?" Every teenager wants to be "the shit." Of course, because of that, our archetype protagonist gets knocked right back down again in "Uniform" because his (or her) attempts at nonconformity merely ended in the opposite result.

The blurry hangover of the next morning takes on a grandiose (albeit surreal) beauty as Bloc Party more fully revel in their U2 flirtations with "I Still Remember" and "Sunday." However, they lyrically shy away from being as earnestly optimistic as Bono and his compatriots - images of drunken consequences and drug abuse muddying what may have been an overnight liaison (which itself may have been some ephemeral).

So far, Bloc Party has only gotten better with each album. However, with only two albums to their name, that isn't saying much. Hopefully, if they aren't able to continue an upward trend with album number three, they will at least be able to maintain the standard of quality set with Weekend.