ALWAYS NEW DEPTHS
DISCLAIMER: I’ve hesitated to post this Weekly Post-Ed because I felt I didn’t have anything remarkable to say about Bloc Party beyond, “This band means a lot to me,” and so I’ve been struggling to come up with a better message. Since it is Thursday and the week is nearly through, I’ve decided that sharing how I feel on a personal website is totally fine.
In short: I’m a huge fan of the band. Here’s why:
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I used to stay up late on weeknights to watch Late Night with Conan O’Brien in high school. If not for much needed laughs at the time, then for the musical guests that were featured in the mid 2000s. Unlike the Tonight Show, Conan’s musical guests were indie/alternative starlets making a big impact on the music scene. Many were European, a fair few coming from the UK and for good reason—the indie-punk revival was in full bloom over there when I was 15.
And on one fateful night, Conan introduced the musical guest, “Ladies and gentlemen, Bloc Party!”
The frantic back-and-forth guitar duet of the song “Banquet” jammed out through my old bedroom 14’’ CRT lightbulb television speakers.
And I was changed forever.
“Banquet” is the hit song from Bloc Party’s first EP, Silent Alarm. If you haven’t listened to that album, it’s one of the greatest and complete 54-minutes of music ever made. Every song hits because every song WAS a hit.
Bloc Party was only the beginning. It felt like week after week I was being introduced to the likes of Interpol, Kaiser Chiefs, Foals, Shout Out Louds, Arcade Fire, The Hives, The Bravery, and all the other seminal bands of my teenage years who appeared on Conan O’Brien one after the other. But there has never been a band like Bloc Party for me. They were the first band where I appreciated just about every song they’ve ever made.
Chris Rock once said, “The music you listen to when you’re a teenager is the music you will listen to the rest of your life.” The thing is I had heard The Beatles by this time. I’ve listened to countless hours of many of the 70’s bands my dad often listened to like Elton John, Chicago, or ABBA. I appreciated what I heard, but it never moved me. Bloc Party was different. Their music resonated on what I can only assume was a spiritual level for me. The licks of Russell Lissack’s guitar, the beats of Matt Tong on drums, Gordon Moakes on bass with an amazing rhythm section, and Kele Okereke’s piercing lyrics and guitar riffs combined to make music full of angst and energy that felt like the proper soundtrack of my life at the time.
And, as it turned out, for most of my adult life, too.
I didn’t know it at the time but the single greatest thing the band showed me throughout the years was the fearlessness of their musical direction—every new album offered something different, an evolution of character and music that spoke of a band growing up into fame and new influences in their lives. They wrote about deep personal issues in their music (about drugs, shallow love, true intimacy, and so much more) and in ways that only Bloc Party ever could. They embraced change, never repeating the same tricks twice, and this made each new album 3-dimensional and with a sense of purpose. When you listened to a new Bloc Party song, it was a hit on many different levels: lyrically, rhythmically, emotionally.
This was the band that taught me (like another one of their hits) that there are Always New Depths. And even if I wasn’t aware of how influencial these ideas were while cranking up music to ten on my first CD player at the time, it’s something I’m cognizant of now as I make my own stuff.
I’ll listen to everything they put out, if for no other reason than be fascinated by what’s new and different in the world.
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THOUGHTS ON ALPHA GAMES
Ok, so I’m no music critic. Very rarely do I listen to the lyrics of a song and understand the subtextual meaning, or how the composition of instruments and riffs adds to a theme of a song. Sorry, I’m very basic in my consumption of music: if I like it, I’ll listen to the song more.
That being said, my first full listen of Bloc Party’s Alpha Games was underwhelming. Here, I was expecting the old Bloc Party, the high-tempo post-punk modern sound that burgeoned onto the music scene with their first EP Silent Alarm (and even subsequent albums A Weekend in the City, Intimacy, and Four). I was expecting a better sophomore approach from a rebuilt band that saw the likes of founding bassist Gordon Moakes and drummer Matt Tong depart in 2015.
But after listening to the album several more times and gaining a better appreciation for what was attempted by this new Bloc Party, I think the biggest issue with the music was in my assumption of what the band ought to be for me.
Bloc Party is still a big deal—one of those tentpole influences of my teenage years and, as it turns out, my adult life. Of course I associate a certain feeling with that brand of music and want more. I want that old connection, the one where I felt younger and fluid and full of energy. I’m sure Bloc Party, the band, felt the same way about their original sound, but that was 17-years-ago. Things have changed, not only in the makeup of the band (which now includes incredible newcomers in bassist Justin Harris and drummer Louise Bartle). To assume the band would reproduce an old signature sound isn’t fair; not only for an evolving band, but for the creative process, too.
And what Alpha Games turned out to be is like everything I’ve ever appreciated about Bloc Party: it’s another deep exploration into something new and the brave attempt to follow that instinct.
It’s true that an album is like a relationship: the more time spent with an album, the more of a connection we feel with it. After my first listen, I wasn’t sure what I was hearing with the lyrics, and so looked them up. Apple Music has a neat feature with newer albums that includes interviews with the band. Kele Okereke, the lead singer, broke down each song with the intention behind the lyrics and the choice in sound and mood. After reading about the album, I liked it so much more and could better appreciate it.
After all, who doesn’t better appreciate Shakespeare or Byron after learning a bit more about the work they made? That’s what makes literature so alluring, that it can mean so many things.
And I think Alpha Games is very much in this same literary vein.
It’s one of the more unique Bloc Party albums to date, one I find myself listening to more and more, finding new reasons to listen to tracks I didn’t find musically interesting on the first playthrough.
I hope there is more to come, more momentum to be gained with a proper infusion of new band members and new musical voices in the group. It’s not the Bloc Party that represented the energy and angst of my teenage years any longer
And that’s perfectly ok.
Instead, Bloc Party’s music has grown u. Alpha Games is a matured and wisened album, one that comes from experiences of losing and finding love, and if it means anything in the end.
In many ways, this is probably what Bloc party – the band – probably felt about themselves while making it: do they still mean something?
For me, the answer is emphatically YES.
I think they’ve still got it, and I can’t wait to hear more.
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Obviously I recommend the entire album of Alpha Games, but I do have a few favorite tracks that have been on repeat in the car. I’ll list them below:
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Wishing everyone as well as you can be. You’re not alone out there,
