There are some bands *cough* Radiohead *cough*, that album after album deliver something inventive, fresh and with depth that warrants further listens. On the other end of the spectrum you have bands that struggle after just one.
Unfortunately for Bloc Party, Intimacy sits indisputably into the latter.
First song
Aries scrapes together everything that's wrong with this
album and offers it out as an introduction, attempting to shock impress their new and uneducated fans.
Lead singer Kele sounds like a six year old whining throughout, and the ridiculously cheesy lyrics; "Spark it, give me TWOS on that!?", "This shit is long!", only add to the frustration.
Second song and first single Mercury is made up of 99% faeces 1% pop and third track Halo serves to excite their old fans by sounding like a B-Side from Silent Alarm.
The biggest problem is how visible the structure of the album is;
Two "different" songs as an introduction to show diversity and a new direction, a 'normal' song to dampen the blow on the older fan base, then a quieter one to mix things up. It's all so blatant and boring and a typical move by a band struggling to keep their head above water.
A positive in-between all of these negatives is the production. It's definitely interesting and something that I wont fault entirely.
Album closer Ion Squares tries new things and sounds ok, but again there's too much forced into too little and instead of sounding inventive, it sounds bloated.
Biko is cheese in a bun with extra cheese, and the repeated backing vocals of "Your. Not. Doing. This. Anymore." adds a few more cheddar slices, but it manages to come off as innocent and actually quite heartfelt.
Still, this is not enough to redeem a band that were once at the forefront of intelligent guitar indie.
We could go on quoting terrible lyrics such as the now infamous "You used to take your watch off, before we made love" or continue naming the remaining tracks with a quick quip about how it's over the top nonsense but after everything said, you're probably getting the idea.
Simply put, Bloc Party have become a shadow of their former selves, exchanging ingenuity for scene points and throwing away the respect they once had for an album full of uninspired songs all jostling around to sound the most diverse.
4 / 10
Preach, brother.
Aries – Ares?
Ion Squares – Ion Square
And the lyrics on Biko are in fact ‘you’re not doing this alone’, if you have interpreted this as anymore then I find it hard to believe you have grasped the songs overall meaning.
Personally, I am of the opinion that Intimacy is in fact a brilliant and complete piece that does not actually lack in originality whatsoever. This originality may be more implicit than in SA and AWITC, however the edgy guitar riffs and Big-Beat-esque style are elements that are rarely found in today’s ‘indie’ scene, hardly the generic sound churned out by Oasis anyway.
All of the above is, however, merely my opinion, I cannot really criticise your views as these are yours and you are entitled to them, opinion and debate make music all the more interesting. I will suggest, though, that if you are going to make a criticism of an album, you should not make errors such as the aforementioned ones, as they make the review hard to respect and even perhaps take seriously.
One letter spelling mistakes. *gasp* Apologies sir!
I agree that at the moment their "big-beat-esque" style are indeed elements of music hard to find nowadays (if you would read the line about production i do say its something i dont fault entirely), but the whole album stinks of the attempt to break free and sound new. Silent Alarm showed the world what they could've been and its such a shame to see a once resepected band fall this far into the struggles of the current music industry.
You should know Brad. One single error and your entire opinion is declared null and void.
Just imagine a world where Martin Luther King Jnr. declares "I has a dream" or where Nixon urges "I'm not a croak". Or where George W. actually gets something right. Impact equals zero.
sorry Brad, but any critic who actually uses *gasp* or *cough* etc should not be allowed to publish anything in English on the net; try again.
So physical reaction by asterixed text instantly means punishment, right. And actually completely quitting doing any more publications on the internet in English and Englisg only would fix that. Yep.Gotcha.
All these new gosh damn internet rules!
I thought this was a democracy!
Englisg is a subsiduary of English =P
Terribly written review for such an excellent new album. Shame you didn't even bother to look at the track-listing to get the correct spellings. Amateur.
I'm beginning to see a pattern here.
"for such an excellent album" ?? Excellent? Since when has lack-lustre, poorly executed music been excellent?
I have to agree with Brad here, such a shame to see a band with an Excellent album (Silent Alarm? go downhill with everything done after aforementioned album.
I didn't even notice the ever-so slight spelling mistakes,these do not take away from a good review... AND the fact that you think this album is not just good, but excellent, is one of many reasons why you do not review music.
...
did you actually listen to the album.?
i suppose you'd give ok computer 5 stars out of 10 wouldn't you. if you think radioheads so great, then obviously something in your head is working, but bloody hell, what is wrong with you....4 stars out my 10....my god.
i hope theres a god, for your sake.
I reckon god would find Intimacy mediocre aswell.
I reckon he's a more a Pearl Jam kinda guy.
You think Radioshit are innovative and fresh? Oh, you're one of those people.
Earlier this month, we... Read on
I first met David... Read on
Freshly processed from the strangeglue.com playlist at Last.fm
Thanks for reading, we really hope you enjoy the site.
We have a simple mission - to provide the best music news, reviews and articles that we possibly can.
Any feedback you would like to send, is most welcome - just visit the contact page and leave us a message. Even more importantly we really encourage you to get involved by leaving a comment on any of the articles or reviews.
Like strangeglue.com? why not bookmark us
music [at] strangeglue.com
Postal Adress:
StrangeGlue.com
PO Box 80
Hayle
TR27 4WU
This site was lovingly tended to by One Black Bear
steve
commented 2 months ago
Nice to see SG isnt afraid to jump off bandwagons, this album is scarily average. Very disappointing.