Before i discovered Ra Ra Riot, i had been searching around desperately for another band to satisfy me as much as Bloc Partys first two albums did. I listened to a lot of shit in this time period, testing the waters of the genre with more mainstream, crappy stuff- The Editors and The Cribs come to mind; i still havent checked out The Killers beyond their singles, but they never really did it for me anyway.
Bloc Party was another purchase i made on a whim. A roommate of mine was heading out shopping and i wanted to tag along and grab some new music, so i quickly checked the Onion AV clubs record reviews, and the best reviewed album of that week happened to be A Weekend in the City. Unknown to me, Bloc Party was delivering a second album after being very well received after their debut. Where Silent Alarm was a minor-keyed pop rock album, it was still very easy to dance to and full of great hooks. Like Eating Glass opens the album and is one of their strongest tracks. It builds so well, and those drums are just bombastic.
But A Weekend in the City just got darker and more creative, adding in deeper studio work while using the 4 piece band to its fullest potential. The lyrical content got much more defeated and scared, second guessing the places they were in their lives and clinging to hope, yet the melodies of the verses and hooks that the singer uses are all very unique and dynamic. It was the strength of the band around these unique vocals that instantly drew me to them.
I Still Remember is probably the most friendly from A Weekend at the City, but it is also just a powerhouse example of how well these guys could write a pop song. The album adds a lot more electronics that were nonexistent on their debut, but I Still Remember is just the band alone, writing a nice love song with a great beat.
silent alarm
a weekend in the city
Bonus Track: two more years, a single the wrote between the two albums.
