91Èȱ¬

Still, arresting lyrical imagery aside...isn't it nice that Bloc Party are leaving their indie comfort zone? Isn't it great that there's bands around who are prepared to try something new once in a while? I mean, sure, to some people it can look like they're deliberately alienating their fanbase and throwing away a legacy of quality music, just to try and appeal to fickle teenyboppers who weren't there at the start and can't possibly get the finer nuances of what the band are all about...

...but then those people are officially NO FUN. For the rest of us, who could fail to be excited by a world in which doomy, yelpy old Bloc Party have been taking pointers from Hadouken! and making an indie-ised version of old Fatboy Slim / Chemical Brothers-style Big Beat?

And it's not like them leaving guitars off for a bit makes their old records disappear either. Everyone's a winner!

Now, people who review music and offer ratings out of five are often really stingy with their final star. This is because there are very, very few songs which are entirely flawless, and also because there's a suggestion that a five-star song should be something everyone likes (as opposed to a Five Star song, which is something a most people struggled to enjoy, even at the time).

Well, stuff that, this is a subjective business, even at the top end of the ratings scale. This is a four star song, but because it's Bloc Party doing it, because it is going to cause confusion and anxiety among people who don't understand music unless it is rendered on a six-stringed instrument and sung by a man with Beatle hair, and because it shows ambition and a desire to muck about with sound, they're getting the full whack.

So. Ner.

Download: Out now
CD Released: August 11th

(Fraser McAlpine)