Bloc Party: psuedo-depressive drama kings made a pretty good album, actually

i am one of those horrible people who, if i find out the band is full of personalities that make me want to punch someone repeatedly in the neck, the music dips a few notches in my book.

let's take ryan adams, kasabian and oasis, for example. ryan adams is fine. his music is fine, non-threatening, not challenging in anyway, just fine. i wouldn't turn it off, but i also wouldn't turn it up. however, when reports started trickling in of ryan adams being a complete assmonkey to people (screaming at them when they joked about his name, for example), well, his music got turned off. when i read that kasabian are a bunch of perpetually intoxicated 21 year olds who stagger around and grandstand about things they know nothing about (chicks dig kids with the name serge? think again), while i did laugh heartily, it also deflated them in my mind. and don't even get me started on the little arrogant-for-no-reason pieces of shite in oasis.

bloc party, while i'd heard a few songs, had not really registered yet, but for my good friend kerry falling deeply in love with them recently. then i read an article about them, and rolled my eyes so hard i think i actually caught a gimpse of my cerebral cortex.

the 'ooooOOOOOOOooooh i'm a deeeep, deeeeep, deeeepreeessed art school booooooy,' act is so old, it's a fossil. seriously. only morrissey can pull that off, and even then, it's tongue-in-cheek (though maybe not meaning to be) and, well, it's who he is. but these kids have literally nothing to moan and complain about.

oh, don't like being called the 'next big thing' to come out of britian? quit your band and leave us alone, then.

don't like performing? then maybe instead of whining about it in an article that will be read by thousands of the people who, oh i don't know, turn out for your shows and pay your bills, you should stay home.

think that people who compare you to musical pioneers like gang of four are complete morons (and that's a compliment, by the way, kids)? then maybe completely change your sound. because that's who you sound like (albeit not blatantly, but there's an obvious similarity).

so yea. after that article, i wasn't to keen on the bloc party scene.

but then again, not having really paid attention to the actual music, i thought, 'well, what the hell,' and downloaded all 14 songs from the debut, 'silent alarm' onto my trusty mr. peezen (my ipod. get it? peezen ipod? get it? *sigh*). i listened to the whole thing while stuck in mind-numbing traffic for an hour last night.

well let me tell you. that is one hell of a debut.

they can all suck my left buttcheek, because there is, most certainly, a gang of four thing going on there. but there's also lots of gorgeous, lilting guitar, really cool, unique lyrics (who writes about a girl shaving her legs? i mean really), and swelling, uplifting choruses... lots with a political agenda (specifically on 'price of gasoline') that, i'm sorry, i've been really missing from music today.

kele okereke has a high, clear, expressive voice that carries the songs up into the clouds, and matt tong's drums are borderline tribal in their urgency and intensity, yet they never overshadow the song. the music is at once lovely and atmospheric ('this modern love' is an instant classic), bare-bones and jerky... reminding us, of course, of some 80s new wave but updating it with so many influences, it's really tough to nail one down completely.

truly listenable, at times the choruses kind of blend into one another, but it's a flaw i'll overlook right now. this is one you'll want to listen to over and over again just to catch every sound and every hook and as many words as you can (kele's thick accent gets in the way sometimes for us bone-headed americans).

great as background, great as foreground. and even though they may hate it, i can't wait to see them live, which i'll be doing twice this year. maybe after the show i'll give them a firm talking to about those attitudes, mister. but right now? i'm just really happy to give it a listen, and push those personalities aside.