Bloc Party - Silent Alarm 2005

Not all wilfully obscure stuff #1

I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone other than me but Bloc Party are actually quite good. Having decided early on that I'd hate them, I'd never engaged until I was buying five CD's for a tenner in a discount music shop and needed that all important fifth CD to make up the numbers. 'Silent Alarm' was that CD and I kept it for a couple of years before I had the stomach to give it a listen.

To my amazement it's pretty decent stuff. They don't sound at all like the way they look or the way they've been portrayed in the media. It's geeky voiced indie with particularly bangy drums and clashing guitars that is at times faintly reminiscent of The Jam, Blur, The Buzzcocks, Muse and Echo and the Bunnymen all mixed together, and at other times unfortunately like Ride.

The three absolute standout tracks, which all probably got to number one in the hit parade for all I know, are 'Banquet', 'Helicopter' and 'Positive Tension' which has one of the best endings you'll ever hear. But there's an awful lot more to enjoy in addition to the obvious. Perhaps in future I'll have a more open mind and listen to the advice of George Micahel and 'Listen without Prejudice' but somehow I doubt that will be the case.

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