Far more interesting than his indie-rock peers (Tom Meighan of Kasabian springs to mind), Kele Okereke is an intensely sensitive, self-regarding frontman. From interviews in which he gives the impression that he’s being persecuted, to his whinge at a man who clambered up a pole during their 2005 Reading festival set (‘Please don’t ruin this for us’), he’s too worried about his own legacy. To the haters, this is what grates about Bloc Party.
They’re seen as overly earnest chaps who assume that they’re the voice of a lost generation. But, sadly for Okereke, the vertiginous rise of The Fratellis and Kaiser Chiefs has shown that the public aren’t so sure about that. And they certainly don’t want to be reminded, too often anyway, that life can be a bit shit.
Still, there’s no denying that 2005 debut ‘Silent Alarm’ had its moments – mostly poignant. And it’s these they’ve sharpened here. A confessional about, you guessed it, a weekend in good old London town, it explores, less obliquely than their debut, issues of racism, drugs, sexuality and a grey, homogeneous capital – ‘there was a sense of disappointment as we left the mall, all the young people looked the same,’ (‘Uniform’). But, in telling us where we’re going wrong, Okereke keeps himself at arms length and is too dismissive of London life. Why, as on the spine-tingling ‘On’, is it okay for him to have a night out on gak, but not, as he sings on ‘Song For The Clay (Disappear Here)’, the hordes of East London?
The soundtrack to all of this displays an admirable step forward. Less art-rock jerky than its predecessor, post rock orchestration and electronics are pushed to the fore, while the drums skitter and pound to a different beat to that of most indie bands. But, as with so many acts on their second effort, towards the end here, Bloc Party have made steps to elevate their songs to Snow Patrol hugeness, something that’s at odds with the inventive work – which the band bang on about so much – done earlier on the album. Bloc Party, it would seem, are still confused about who they want to be.
