English quartet Bloc Party were never the best band in the world, but those that remember the band's March 2005 album debut Silent Alarm could at least say, in some ways, that the group was at least good, to a point.Far be it from me to recall their 2005 efforts in a jaded tone, but the band has gone through a noticeable slump since then, which can no longer be referred to solely in the "sophomore" tense. The band's second album, 2007's Weekend in The City, was not quite as good as their debut, but certainly had moments of relativity.
From then on, however, Bloc Party produced newer music on a more feverish pace, releasing their utterly insipid third album Intimacy in October of last year. The album's sound curiously replaced the band's squarely novel post-punk varieties of Silent Alarm with harshly forced electronic syths, and monochromatic imagery. Not that sound change isn't a good thing - it's certainly worked wonders for other artists - but for a young group like Bloc Party, it was unnecessarily rushed.
Today I was graced with another sound of maturation of Bloc Party's work (found at MFR) with their newly leaked single "One More Chance." It seems so generous that a name befit the song so profoundly inaccurate. Not six seconds into the song does the whole arrangement feels sorely out of touch, even surpassing the misguided New Order-esque attempts of Intimacy.
What is heard here is a background more comfortable in 1996's Trainspotting club scene. It's a change almost unwelcome in any familiar setting, comparable to U2 going the way of 1997's Pop. Although it should be noted that Pop is much better than most of Bloc Party's music.
But shorter descriptions do "One More Chance" as much justice as long, detailed ones do. Awful works pretty well.
Sticking with the theme here; I've given Bloc Party "One More Chance" and they failed miserably. The official single is out August 10 via Wichita Recordings, but you can grab your copy here.
