2015 MUSIC
- Thread starter WALDENPOND
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- Jul 9, 2010
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As soon as Kele started explicitly singing about Bethnal Green, they were in trouble. That place is a ******* shithole. It doesn't even have an underground.
I thought Four was an album not really worth having. Kind of put them on that level with Interpol: making albums with unimaginative songs that people expect to hear from that band. I really hate when Bloc go hard on the guitars. Russell thinks it sounds like Siamese Dream-meets-Pinkerton but it just sounds utensil-rock, and Four had a fair bit of that. The Healing is the direction they should've been in right about now. Truth and VALIS were good but they're a bit 'hey this is a Bloc Party single.' Octopus is actually a genuinely good little song – the first and maybe last time Russ' used some interesting effects.
I have good memories of Intimacy. It was the first of their releases I was kind of around for, I got into them right as AWITC was leaking six months early, and it was so exciting to see all the MySpace bulletins. I remember the way it came out... so lame and so tryhard. But at least that was only a year after In Rainbows. Some lame arse bands are still releasing music that way in 2015. Anyway, I loved how about half the songs were played all over the internet before it even came out, and then the shocking album artwork (which changed) and everything else. Mercury is a turd but it's a good experiment and in some ways, I kind of almost half don't mind it.
Letter To My Son is their last song you can throw in the canon. It is phenomenal. It's not what you would expect from them, Kele sings with passion and a unique vocal melody, the lyrics are like Cells Shaped Like Stars but almost better in a way... it blends his storytelling with his obscurity. It really is a staggeringly good song. Their last.
I personally think Russell is to blame as much as Kele for their downfall. He's become extremely dull since about Intimacy. The big rock songs on Intimacy were pretty lame, even if they sounded exciting and brash and 'drop everything' when you heard them on the radio. But the best songs on that record weren't his doing, either. Kele is a bit of a knob but you know, I kind of respect his intentions of experimentation. He just doesn't have that great foil of the Russell Lissack who could write nice sounding guitar bits.
Also, are Bloc Party the least cool band in the world? They look so bad. Russell wears these bulky high tops that are just awful, his jeans are all rips, and his frame in a singlet is more shameful and embarrassing than how I'd look in one. They just look like a bunch of *in knobs.
At least they looked half cool in 2013. Then again Matt had always been a half-snappy dresser
I thought Four was an album not really worth having. Kind of put them on that level with Interpol: making albums with unimaginative songs that people expect to hear from that band. I really hate when Bloc go hard on the guitars. Russell thinks it sounds like Siamese Dream-meets-Pinkerton but it just sounds utensil-rock, and Four had a fair bit of that. The Healing is the direction they should've been in right about now. Truth and VALIS were good but they're a bit 'hey this is a Bloc Party single.' Octopus is actually a genuinely good little song – the first and maybe last time Russ' used some interesting effects.
I have good memories of Intimacy. It was the first of their releases I was kind of around for, I got into them right as AWITC was leaking six months early, and it was so exciting to see all the MySpace bulletins. I remember the way it came out... so lame and so tryhard. But at least that was only a year after In Rainbows. Some lame arse bands are still releasing music that way in 2015. Anyway, I loved how about half the songs were played all over the internet before it even came out, and then the shocking album artwork (which changed) and everything else. Mercury is a turd but it's a good experiment and in some ways, I kind of almost half don't mind it.
Letter To My Son is their last song you can throw in the canon. It is phenomenal. It's not what you would expect from them, Kele sings with passion and a unique vocal melody, the lyrics are like Cells Shaped Like Stars but almost better in a way... it blends his storytelling with his obscurity. It really is a staggeringly good song. Their last.
I personally think Russell is to blame as much as Kele for their downfall. He's become extremely dull since about Intimacy. The big rock songs on Intimacy were pretty lame, even if they sounded exciting and brash and 'drop everything' when you heard them on the radio. But the best songs on that record weren't his doing, either. Kele is a bit of a knob but you know, I kind of respect his intentions of experimentation. He just doesn't have that great foil of the Russell Lissack who could write nice sounding guitar bits.
Also, are Bloc Party the least cool band in the world? They look so bad. Russell wears these bulky high tops that are just awful, his jeans are all rips, and his frame in a singlet is more shameful and embarrassing than how I'd look in one. They just look like a bunch of *in knobs.
At least they looked half cool in 2013. Then again Matt had always been a half-snappy dresser
I really liked Kettering though but I do know what you mean. Leaf Skeleton, truth and Valis were also good. I find Kele's lyrics are becoming so basic and boring too. Four and probably this new one are the band trying to keep something going that shouldn't be.
Have you seen the YouTube video of them playing some new stuff at Maida Vale? Keel is wearing an atrocious red shirt and red shorts combination.
Have you seen the YouTube video of them playing some new stuff at Maida Vale? Keel is wearing an atrocious red shirt and red shorts combination.
He'd actually gone to the gym and put on a lot of muscle from memory.
Pumped for new last shadow puppets
Severe
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I thought Bloc Party was about as cool as Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys these days. You have to admire them for having such attention on a fifth album as a pop band at the moment. It proves they have had an impact on listeners, probably the debut or sophomore. AWITC for me.
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Severe
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OMG, TOTES FAUX PAS.
No.19
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Agree with a bit of what you've said. Four was pretty good IMO, tracks like Real Talk, Team A and Straight Thru Cru are some of my favourites. The effects on Octopus actually make Russell's playing incredibly lazy (except the solo) - it's a combination of delay pedals which repeat the note (bouncing between 16ths and 8ths) for only one strum. Compare that to the crescendo and climax of Plans and it doesn't even come close.
They've had a good run but the amount of average songs increased from record to record. Seeing them in 2013 was a good send-off for a band that was a massive part of my year 11 - early uni days.
- Jul 9, 2010
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Personally I reckon Kele's get up there isn't bad. If he was a white boy with cornrows and a kit like that, then sure. But he's a black man and he can absolutely pull it off. Bit like Solange in that Losing You video. But without a ludicrous body.
I don't think you can hate a song because it's easy to play. Technicality is deserving of praise and attention but it doesn't always equate to a good song. The best guitarists of the internet age aren't the ones in bands – they're not writing good songs, they're playing lame metal riffs on YouTube. I forget who said that on this forum, but it was a great call. Own up whoever did.
My favourite Bloc Party song is probably Banquet. Their best songs are Always New Depths, Like Eating Glass, This Modern Love, Banquet, Positive Tension, Hunting for Witches, Letter To My Son, Cain Said to Abel.
I don't think you can hate a song because it's easy to play. Technicality is deserving of praise and attention but it doesn't always equate to a good song. The best guitarists of the internet age aren't the ones in bands – they're not writing good songs, they're playing lame metal riffs on YouTube. I forget who said that on this forum, but it was a great call. Own up whoever did.
My favourite Bloc Party song is probably Banquet. Their best songs are Always New Depths, Like Eating Glass, This Modern Love, Banquet, Positive Tension, Hunting for Witches, Letter To My Son, Cain Said to Abel.
- Moderator
- #414
Straight Thru Cru is the best song of the Four era, such a shame it was hidden away on the Octopus 7".
Bloc Party's best was quite obviously the 2004-05 era. But that doesn't mean they didn't make some good songs after that, they just never hit the heights of Silent Alarm.
My favourites, fwiw: Two More Years, Tulips, Like Eating Glass, Skeleton, Hunting for Witches, The Once and Future King, Banquet, Luno
Thought I'd heard that from somewhere..
No.19
Cancelled
- Feb 21, 2015
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I really like Octopus, was just pointing out how his style of playing reflected the change in the band. My favourites - SRXT, Plans, Talons, Team A, Kreuzberg, I Still Remember, This Modern Love, Signs, She's Hearing Voices, Better than Heaven - could go on.
- Jul 9, 2010
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Stay easy... stay lean...
No.19
Cancelled
- Feb 21, 2015
- 556
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In terms of other music from 2015:
- Death Cab for Cutie's Kintsugi is great with Black Sun being my favourite track for the year so far.
- Ratatat's Magnifique is pretty groovy. Especially the track Abrasive.
- Apparently City and Colour's new one is good?
Severe
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'This Modern Love', 'Kreuzberg', 'On', and 'The Prayer'.
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Severe
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Haven't listened to CAC since 'Bring Me Your Love'. I love that album but everything since sounds contrived and by numbers to me.
Severe
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I agree. Some chopsticks on piano or hammering an out of tune guitar with out of key vocals and kitchen sink lyrics can be just as meaningful to somebody as 'The Ring Cycle' is meaningful to another.
Jack Stevens
#2 Ticket Holder
I reckon this Bloc Party business is what a divorce must feel like. Something that's carried you for so many years, through the good and the bad, suddenly just doesn't feel the same and all of the feeling vanishes. I got into Bloc Party probably around the summer of '07; my mate showed me Hunting For Witches and I thought it was some weird techno s**t, but then he showed me I Still Remember and I was hooked. It's sort of strange to think that it was only a few months after that that Intimacy came out. When I heard Silent Alarm for the first time, my perspective on music changed.
The new single is just plain awful. Even at Bloc Party's worst, there was something you could pick out and admire. This is just bland, zero energy, kiddie disco s**t. The recycled lyrics is embarrassing. Kele's solo stuff isn't half bad so I really don't get how they managed to stuff this up so badly.
The new single is just plain awful. Even at Bloc Party's worst, there was something you could pick out and admire. This is just bland, zero energy, kiddie disco s**t. The recycled lyrics is embarrassing. Kele's solo stuff isn't half bad so I really don't get how they managed to stuff this up so badly.
I posted something similar in the unpopular opinions thread, might be thinking of that.
This leaked a while back, a really great direction they've gone with after Era Extrana and has so many good grooves on it.new neon indian just in time for summer
This is still my favourite song of theirs, though:
