if you know me at all, this is like the mars landing for the nasa guys or uh i dunno the opposite of 9/11 for the american people... that is to say it's a big, awesome deal.

i actually had a ticket to go see them at Terminal 5 here in nyc last night but since i'm a lazy old asshole now, i got out of work around 9 and decided i'd rather sit at home and watch the big bang theory while eating take-out. they'll always be back another time. what have i become

anyways let's fire up this leaked version of the new record that probably just put a shitload of spyware and porno ads all over my work laptop

Track One: So He Begins To Lie

Starts with a dialogue in the studio between band members and engineers... Crunchy guitar riffs. This sounds like something a Shudder To Think cover band from 1993 comprised of some London teenagers would make.

It's not bad, I suppose. Without the vocals I'd never suspect this was a BP song. It sounds very 90s.

It's always fun when you download a pirated album and you wonder if what you're hearing is some sort of trick by the artists to screw you for stealing their music. I think I downloaded like a Lupe Fiasco album or something a few years ago and it was just hyper Japanese cartoon music for 90 minutes. I got to about minute 31 before I caught on.

Ok towards the end there's some deep guitar work that hints at the fact that Russel Lissack is playing on this and not just some shithead yobbo.

Track Two: 3x3

This is more familiar. Got that sort of sinister vibe they've come to embrace in the past two albums. Gets pretty wild quickly. Lissack is really starting to take off - soaring guitar lines with intricate, crafted tone. Kele doing a switch between growling and those arching vocals that are worlds away from the yelps and shouts of Silent Alarm. I think he's really grown as a singer, it's too bad his solo album was a weedplate.

As always, drum and bass are perhaps the tightest rhythm section in indie rock.

paul what time is the block party i'll bring my famous potato sal

sa

Track Three: Octopus

As with any Bloc Party single, it took me about 46 listens to realize I love this track. Pretty stripped down - simple arpeggiated guitar effects over tight rhythm and lyrics with that quintessentially cool yet seemingly nonsense content that seems to infect the more radio-friendly of this bands songs.

The bridge noodles a bit too far into the land of the prog for my tastes but I can live with it.

Overall a bit of a headscratcher for me. Knowing this album is the first recorded effort by the band in five years and knowing this is a band that insists on progression and maturity, it's a bit hard to tell what they're thinking for this record. It's certainly catchy but it seems almost emotionally detached. This is by far a less personal effort lyrically so far than previous releases.

Also I feel like Kele is not playing guitar on these songs, which is a noticeable absence. Watching the video on youtube confirms this. Also what is going on in this video? Weak effort. It's like watching a Living Colour cover band circa 2012 comprised of London 30 year olds.

Ever since I quit smoking my taste buds are on a hundred. Joey what did you put in this potato sal

iva

Fuck it, I should just liveblog listening to the first Saliva record

yeah let's just smoke salvia

Track Four: Real Talk

It's like Kele Okereke's been smoking salvia or something, I just feel like his lyrics are much less eloquent and seamless than in previous efforts. Also, these lyrics are about sitting in a sedan with a man and trying to make a move or something, who the fuck is this, Morrissey?

Lissack in with the crystal clear guitar tone that just pierces through the mediocrity - that man is definitely my favorite guitar player even if a lot of his playing is essentially admiration for Jonny Greenwood.

Oh shit, banjo.

This is a track that will require many many more listens to fully assess. Right now my impressions are:

-A bit underwhelming
-A bit sloppy on the solo
-I don't like that one style where Kele sings "show me the sign," it's dangerously close to that speak-singing, yelping style he was doing in 2005.

As with most of his solo album, The Boxer, I'd say the most surprising thing is an utter lack of the brilliant lyricism found on A Weekend In The City and Intimacy. Is it possible as one gets older to lose their way with words?

Track Five: Kettling

Oh the pirates who leaked this album must have decided to just swap in a Texas Is The Reason track instead of the actual song here... It's cool, I dig crunchy metal riffs played by former Hare Krishnas.

Kele doing a reasonable Mike Patton attempt with more stretching vocals. Lyric of, "popo don't fuck around," which may be more of his trademark glomming of American slang or who knows, maybe they actually talk that way in London now.

Song seems to lyrically reference the rioting of last summer in London but - and I realize I am a broken record here - with none of the insight, subtlety and empathy of Kele's previous songs regarding life for the marginalized in English society.

I'm starting to worry the replay value of some of these tracks might be very low, even with saturated re-listens for the rest of the summer. This record is not hitting me like previous BP albums.

Guitar work is much lighter and weaker on this record.

This is not a good song. I don't like this song.

That may have been the worst Bloc Party song I've ever heard. A rad bridge with loads of tube screamer helps a little but it's going to be quite an uphill battle for me to ever learn to love this track.

Track Six: Day Four (confusing)

U2 guitars open this song with some promising lyrics that aren't merely literal statements of dulled insight.

This is more like it. Gorgeous guitar layering. Singing with purpose and emotion - a valid attempt at beauty.

If the previous five tracks had this sort of composition and effort I'd be ecstatic. This is more like waking up from a nightmare that you're unclogging a giant toilet the size of a kiddie pool with your bare arm. (Actual nightmare I had recently.)

Also Jarf was there and he and I worked at a sandwich shop. Been dreaming about Jarf a lot recently. What have I become

I'm getting called into a meeting. PAUSE

paul i've never listened to bloc party. what album should i start with and then get bored of immediately?

joey start with A Weekend In The City

A Weekend In The City Liveblog

Song For Clay (Disappear Here): so far this is super gay

oh some drums

Hunting for Witches: skip

paul i don't think i can deal with this guy's singing

yeah i give up, SORRY PAUL

You lasted longer than I expected!

This boring stupid meeting is really eating into my liveblogging.

Posted From iPhorne

I wanna hear this Japanese Lupe Fiasco record.

Ok back to liveblogging a record no one's heard from a band no one on this board listens to!

Bran muffin... to eat now or save for later

Sorry sorry back on topic

I'll pick it up from here

Track Seven

Jarf is coming to the city this weekend and I will ignore him like i have the past three times he came into the city ok kewl guyz black praty rulz

Track Six: Day Four (continued):

Could have been an outtake from the City recording sessions years ago but damn, good song. A little disappointed that my favorite song so far has nothing new about it compositionally.

Perhaps I am becoming a stubborn old ox (bat) resistant to change? Sue me!

Ever had so many fries that you're like man... this is too many fries! That happened last night to me.

Sorry, just waiting for this pretty fluttering guitar outro that lasts twenty-six minutes to get over with so I can pan the next track.

Track Seven: Coliseum

Ok, for a second I forgot I was playing this through iTunes and thought a Spotify commercial with Beck's "Loser" in the background had come on. Same sliding, twangy acoustic guitar. I guess I have to give BP credit; they're certainly varying up the instrumentation. I think the furthest they'd gone before this album was incorporating vibraphone and a KAOSS pad.

It's a bit disorienting though. This track sounds like some Top 40 Big & Rich song played at Chili's with an English guy doing karaoke vocals. There's some cool guitar layering underneath.

Yelpy vocals segues us to... More crappy, crunchy guitar riffing. Segues to a better tone, pretty fast song. I'd say now it's like hearing Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters jamming drunk after having smoked some hash and listening to a Deftones record.

And just as quickly, it's over.

Track Eight: V.A.L.I.S.

Some nice echo-y guitar, shimmering just how I like it, hints at good things.

Wow, I'll just put my stream of thought here:

This is how all these songs should start. At least this is what I'm used to.

You shouldn't want what you're used to.

You should be open to them doing new things.

It's like the ghost of George Michael just leapt onto the track.

What the hell is this chorus? LOL. It's awesome though.

This is like Wham! and Bloc Party fused in my head while I was really, really high in a dream. I like it.

It's half modern and half throwback. I dig it.

The perfect mix of happy and upbeat while being lyrically quite despondent. These guys do it the best.

Lissack, love these sort of ethereal guitar lines you come up with, bro. Never change.

Best song on the album so far. By a long shot.

Gotta write some copy about industrial lubricants. PAUSE

Track Nine: Team A

They're really into the jittery, edgy guitar sound on this album. Lots of rapid-fire arpeggio. It gets a little tiresome but you can generally depend on it segueing into something lush and full eventually.

After the last track, it's hard to shake the feeling of what makes BP so great at their best. This is so far a pretty standard filler track. Gets a little sinister pre-chorus.

"Snitches get stitches," another potentially cringe-worthy use of what promises to be incredibly dated slang.

Could this be their stoned album? The Perfecting Loneliness to their Orange Rhyming Dictionary? I feel like each member spent six months alone smoking really good pot and listening to specific landmark albums that drove them musically into this niche they had to somehow validate.

Utterly unremarkable song. One of those where I suspect playing it provides much more enjoyment for the musician than hearing it does for the listener.

Track Ten: Truth

Let's just make this rule for Bloc Party: when they stay within their masterful ability to frame a song with positive, bright notes and tempo, they tend towards brilliance. When they stray too far from that framework, the results are incredibly hit or miss.

I'm getting quite tired of this staccato guitar shit. It's literally been on nearly every song on this record. Angular by nature is one thing - this is simply repetitive. But once again, the song isn't completely sunk - thanks to this melancholy sort of sun-peeking-through-the-clouds atmosphere that the melodies and notes lend promise to.

The lyrics on the better songs on this record swing back into that poetic and introspective style Kele does best. This will be a very easy record to compartmentalize, I believe. The good and the bad separate here like oil and water.

Maybe this is a band that just doesn't benefit from big risks - although I'd say overall their catalog has exhibited a pretty impressive degree of experimentation within reason.

Nice tune. Background music. Could probably grow on me... I'm almost certain it will.

Track Eleven: Healing

Here's a good example of BP branching out sonically but not too far from their established roots. I think it just comes down to tones and textures that don't necessarily feel worn out - to some degree the willowy, the heartbroken, the pained will always be staple sounds and themes for their work.

It's probably the mechanical progression of this song with the Johnny Marr/Isaac Brock guitar work here that makes it sound so unfamiliar as a BP work. Without Kele's vocals it has hints of late-era Modest Mouse indeed. Not a bad thing.

Totally a grower. Gonna need to listen to this one a lot more and I will certainly do so. There's a lot going on here.

Did you guys know that process chemicals for the metalworking industry aren't just about getting the job done; they also need to benefit your bottom line? Just fucking kill me.

Track Twelve: We Are Not Good People

So you take the tube up to Hampstead Heath on a solemn Sunday before she leaves for university; as the sun struggles to burst through between decaying leaves and you lay on the blanket with her snug in the crook of your arm in silence, the Zodiac Killer bursts through the brush and stabs you both to death. Except when he pulls off his hood, he's that wife-beating bass player from Queens of the Stone Age and guess what, they've come back to rape the shit out of this track.

Really, where is this shit coming from? If this is the stoned record, I'm putting money on the fact that these guys locked themselves in a flat all winter and got high to Songs For The Deaf.

It's an abrasive, soulless, utterly American sound and it does not suit this band at all. It's beyond grating or off-putting, it's depressing. Chunky, muffed-up bass lines and sharp, attacking guitar notes. What a bore.

And this is just the first ten seconds. Let me unpause this shit and see how this, the (I hate to say this) merciful last track of the album, plays out...

Fuck this track.

I'll be back after the break with my final thoughtŪ.

Still my favorite band. They are honest, intelligent, thoughtful musicians; you can't really condemn that this day in age, even when they miss the mark in your artistic opinion. I will force myself to go see them next time they're in NYC because it's always so fun to watch them, or any band that doesn't take themselves too seriously and truly enjoys playing together and creating something special for themselves and listeners alike.

All in all, it's better to have a new record I half-like than no new record at all. I guess you could say something similar about this liveblog; it's better than no new content, right?? Right??

Yeah I won't do this again. Sorry.

[Steve Wilkos holds back large black woman. Audience cheers.]

paul this was great, more album liveblogs plz

Jarf I just noticed your comment from an hour ago; I'm leaving for NC this afternoon.

I probably would have just stayed in my room anyways, though.

black praty r

otgut got em in that blue nav

:/