Bloc Party

A Weekend in the City

Vice

originally published March 14, 2007

The problem with presuming a band's influences is that there's no real connection between the kind of music we like hearing and the kind of music we sound good playing. You can love jazz all you want, but if you can't improvise to save your life, you're going to have to try punk.

So it's nice to see the members of Bloc Party dispelling some common ideas about their musical affections. On the first album, Silent Alarm , everyone assumed they were influenced by the same four post-punk bands every other band was supposedly influenced by during 2004. But on A Weekend in the City , you can hear a different kind of post-punk in the swooning, writerly vocals: Morrissey. Singer Kele Okereke works involved, melisma-rich melodies that often stay slightly out-of-step with the music, while offering choruses like "tonight make me unstoppable / and I will charm, I will slice / I will dazzle them with my wit." Swoon!

But it's a punk Smiths, as their sound has been beefed up with some fantastic drumming and assorted electronic accoutrements to create a sound that slips away from you, turning sharp corners or floating before crashing in with driving intensity. On "I Still Remember," though, they follow another '80s icon: The Cure. It's "Friday I'm in Love" for the new century, an absolute pop triumph, but it's just another facet on an album glittering with 'em. Bloc Party grew up and got better, and its influences have fallen away.

Michael Barthel