Yes, I know, another music-themed post. Sorry. I’ll keep it brief.
There’s a slew of some of my favourite bands releasing what the musical press would term their ‘difficult second album(s)’ around now.
You know how it goes – an artist appears almost out of the blue with a completely mindblowing debut, that rockets up the charts and spawns a few Top 40 singles, they go away for a year or two, recover/recuperate/record/abuse substances and just as the likes of the NME and Pitchfork are ready to move on and ride the coat-tails of the next bandwagon, the band in question are back with their sophomore effort.
One of the bands in question are Bloc Party, the London-based post-punk outfit, fronted by the enigmatic and publicity-shy Kele Okereke. In 2005, Bloc Party released ‘Silent Alarm’ to massive critical acclaim, indeed, the NME named it their album of the year. And, to be blunt, it’s a fucking corker. So successful was ‘Silent Alarm’ that the label put out a whole remix album 6 months later, which also sold like hotcakes, and, curiously for a remix album doesn’t suck ass at all.
In February Bloc Party officially released ‘A Weekend In The City’, a release brought forward following the album’s leak onto P2P sites many months before the original release date. Wether this was done as a pubicity stunt by the label is left as an excercise for the reader. On ‘A Weekend In The City’ we see the band making bigger, more expansive tracks – grinding, crashing guitars blending seamlessly with staccato drumbeats with Kele’s unmistakable lilting tones punctuating each piece in the same kind of naieve but totally-credible manner that New Order’s Bernard Sumner has made a 25-year career out of.
It’s a fine second coming, stand out tracks for me are ‘Hunting For Witches’ and the opener, ‘Song For Clay (Disappear Here)’. Checky this neat little last.fm doofer below, and get a 30-second blast of ‘Hunting For Witches’:
Unfortunately, the album peters out after the brooding ‘Kreuzberg’, with the last three tracks doing their job, and no more, as ‘album tracks’. It’s not the crowning moment that ‘Silent Alarm’ was – where every track was a winner, but it’s a pretty good effort, and certainly worth a listen.
Which brings us to the next band with a 2nd release around now – yesterday, in fact – Arcade Fire. If you’ve just read that, and have no idea who Arcade Fire are then please, stop right now, go directly to your nearest music download/purchase site and obtain ‘Funeral’. Do it, do it now. I’ll wait…
Good. Now. How’s that mind of yours? Blown? Thought so.
Arcade Fire sound like nothing else I know of. Whilst most bands are happy with a couple of guitars, drums, a bassist and maybe a keyboardist, Arcade Fire will throw French Horns, Hurdy Gurdys and xylophones at you and make fantastic indie-pop music. I think Wikipedia describe them as ‘Baroque Pop’, which is patently batshit, but that’s Wikipedia for you. ‘Funeral’ appeared (in the UK at least) at the beginning of 2005 to a wave of internet-fuelled promotion. Of course, being name-checked by David Bowie helped too. The NME put it 2nd best of 2005, right behind the aforementioned ‘Silent Alarm’.
Their newest, ‘Neon Bible’, brings Arcade Fire that little bit closer to the mainstream. I’m still not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. There’s certainly less orchestra and more guitars here, and I feel it loses quite a bit of the charging, damn-you-all attitude of the first album. It’s probably quite telling that my favourite track is probably ‘No Cars Go’, which itself is a re-recording of a track they recorded on their very first EP in 2003. Perhaps a few listens will loosen it up for me, who knows?
Next up are Sheffield’s finest, the Arctic Monkeys. I am, it has to be said, a massive Monkeys fan. Living in Sheffield, at times it’s hard to escape it! Their new album isn’t even out yet – it’s not due until April, but the hype machine is already chugging into motion, with the first airplay of the first single from the album – the awfully titled ‘Brianstorm’.
You have to respect a band that are so young, and so willing to stick their finger up at their label rather than to pander to their whim. They refuse to go to awards ceremonies and they won’t do TV interviews. Rather than releasing another track from their debut, ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ last year, they put out an EP too long to count as a Top 40 single and entitled it ‘Who The Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?’.
‘Brianstorm’ follows this fuck-you attitude – it’s a raucous, rousing three-minute power-pop stormer. Which has everything a great popsong needs, that is, except a chorus. Of any sort. Fabulous! To paraphrase the song itself, ‘Top marks for not trying’! I fucking love it. If the rest of ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ is anything even remotely like this, we’re all in for a treat.
Sorry, I lied about keeping it short
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