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album review
Intimacy would have been a good name for Bloc Party's previous album, A Weekend in the City, which was so vulnerable and confessional that it often felt like barely edited diary entries set to music. The album's take on 21st century life and love was heavy listening in large part because it felt so personal. Bloc Party's mood is just as dark on Intimacy, which plays a lot like A Weekend in the City's mirror twin: it's a breakup album that gives personal situations a political heft. The similarities aren't really that surprising, considering that Intimacy arrived just a year and a half after A Weekend in the City and also features production work by Jacknife Lee (as well as Silent Alarm producer Paul Epworth). The album begins with two of Bloc Party's angriest, most experimental songs, which revisit the beat-heavy territory of A Weekend in the City's "Prayer" with even more charged results. "Ares" is a modern-day war chant, with seething processed guitar lines fueled by huge pummeling drums, the likes of which haven't been heard since the big beat heyday of the Chemical Brothers and the Prodigy. "Mercury" is cleverly astrological, using a straight description of Mercury's retrograde conditions ("This is not the time to start a new love/This is not the time to sign a lease") as a springboard to a self-loathing rant set to wildly spiraling brass and more of those bludgeoning beats. Bloc Party push the envelope hard on both of these tracks, almost to the point of pretension, but not quite; actually, it's a little anticlimactic when they return to more familiar terrain like "Halo," which could fit in easily among Silent Alarm's angsty rockers.
However, the band does find subtle ways to tweak and channel that angst: "Biko" (not the Peter Gabriel song) is dedicated to Kele Okereke's "sweetheart the melancholic," but when he sings that "you've got to toughen up," he sings it to himself as much as his lost love, and as the song closes with a swell of backing vocals, it's clear that he's singing about more than something between two people. The band captures post-breakup obsession masterfully on the frosty yet strangely hopeful "Signs," where the way Okereke sings "I could sleep forever these days/'Cause in my dreams I see you again" makes this kind of brooding almost as romantic as actually being in love. "Zephyrus" balances Intimacy's heartbreak and experimental tendencies into a standout, setting snippets of an argument to strings, choral vocals, and sputtering rhythms. "Ion Square" ends the album on a somewhat uplifting note along the lines of Silent Alarm's "So Here We Are" or A Weekend in the City's "I Still Remember," and as good as it is, it underscores the album's push-pull between familiar sounds and breaking boundaries. At times, Intimacy feels rushed and predictable, and at others, it's almost painfully ambitious. However, at its best, it balances Silent Alarm's focus with A Weekend in the City's expansiveness. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
However, the band does find subtle ways to tweak and channel that angst: "Biko" (not the Peter Gabriel song) is dedicated to Kele Okereke's "sweetheart the melancholic," but when he sings that "you've got to toughen up," he sings it to himself as much as his lost love, and as the song closes with a swell of backing vocals, it's clear that he's singing about more than something between two people. The band captures post-breakup obsession masterfully on the frosty yet strangely hopeful "Signs," where the way Okereke sings "I could sleep forever these days/'Cause in my dreams I see you again" makes this kind of brooding almost as romantic as actually being in love. "Zephyrus" balances Intimacy's heartbreak and experimental tendencies into a standout, setting snippets of an argument to strings, choral vocals, and sputtering rhythms. "Ion Square" ends the album on a somewhat uplifting note along the lines of Silent Alarm's "So Here We Are" or A Weekend in the City's "I Still Remember," and as good as it is, it underscores the album's push-pull between familiar sounds and breaking boundaries. At times, Intimacy feels rushed and predictable, and at others, it's almost painfully ambitious. However, at its best, it balances Silent Alarm's focus with A Weekend in the City's expansiveness. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
more albums by this artist
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- Silent Alarm (Parental Advisory)
- Released 2005
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- A Weekend in the City
- Released 2007
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- Silent Alarm Remixed (Parental Advisory)
- Released 2005
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- A Weekend In The City
- Released 2007
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listener reviews
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One of the Best
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- By tezmill2
- 6/4/2009 02:11:36
- Simply put, it is one of the best albums i've ever heard. The album starts off a lot slow, but on other albums, it would be one of the better tracks. Ares is a song that sounds like it will be bad at the beginning, but the beat is actually really catchy. The album then moves to some fast past head bobbing tracks with Mercury and Halo. Neither of these tracks are near the top of my favorites, but I wouldn't skip them when listening to them either. The album then picks up in quality starting with Biko which is, in my opinion, the 3rd best track on the album. A very slow but heart-felt sounding track. Then the album hits hard with a very good Trojan Horse then back to the slower signs which might be the best song on the album(toss up with Zephyrus). The album hits hard again with One Month Off which is a very fun track that is one of the better fast paced tracks which leads into another amazing track in Zephyrus. The melodie and the chants with this track are simply amazing. Between tracks 4 and 8 is when the album is at its best. It slows down in quality with Talons but again, it isn't a track I wouldn't pass up on listening to it's just not one of the favorites. The album comes together again with Better Than Heaven which is probably the 2nd best faster paced song behind Flux. Ion Square is not one of the better tracks, but you find yourself just listening to it. You want to skip the track, but you can't seem to because it is very catchy. The album then ends with two catch yet mediocre songs that you can't help but listen to. The albums ends at a very high note with Flux which is the best fast paced song on the album and the fourth best song on the album. Flux is just an amazing track. In overview, this is one of the best albums start to finish that i've ever heard.
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Number Three For BP
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- By SupaSyd23
- 1/28/2009 23:32:45
- this is there third album,
and it's like none the others,
bloc party likes to change up the style.
on there four album contract, they
decided that each one of them gets
to use their own style,
but of course the lyrics are off limits
and only kele can do them.
i know the gordy was under the influence
of silent alarm. i don't remeber who intimacy
and AWITC, but the fourth album is
going to be kele's style.
this album is more intimate, the lyrics
of course, he put his heart and soul into
them. and you can tell. i love love love
bloc party, and will support anything
they do. - 1 out of 1 people
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Unique Sound from Bloc Party
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- By Spitulski
- 1/2/2009 01:23:41
- This album was very different from their past ones, it has a different vibe and is much softer than A Weekend In The City or Silent Alarm. However, there are a couple songs, such as Flux, and Talons that step it up a bit. Overall, it is a very enjoyable album by a great band. I hope to see more songs in the future from these guys.
- 3 out of 3 people
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