When you load Bloc Party's A Weekend in the City into your CD player, you won't be greeted by dueling guitars or aggressive percussion. Rather, you will hear front man Kele Okereke quietly intoning the problems of idealism and modernity over some gentle guitar strumming. It's an awfully meek inauguration of the band's sophomore effort, considering the group's bombastic singles and frenetic live performances, but Okereke's quiet introduction nicely sets the stage for A Weekend in the City.
Bloc Party's latest is conceptually and emotionally more sprawling than the band's debut, Silent Alarm. Far more ambitious in lyrical scope, the album tackles drug abuse, working-class troubles, immigration, racial conflict and homosexuality in its 50-minute runtime. For all practical purposes, A Weekend in the City is a concept album about the tribulations of city life, and Okereke wants to make his intentions clear from the beginning of the album.
Even if the concept behind the album is nice, however, fans may be worried that Okereke is sacrificing the power of his band's signature rock anthems for lyrical content. Fortunately, the album's ambition doesn't steal from Bloc Party's energetic guitar work. It takes all of 67 seconds for Okereke's timid strumming on "Songs for Clay (Disappear Here)" to evolve into a thumping balls-out song. It's a comforting reassurance, proving to listeners that Bloc Party has hardly lost its confidence or strength.
As searingly awesome as "Song for Clay" is, the album's next few songs are even better. One such highlight is "Hunting for Witches." The song stutters to life with a catchy sound collage before thumping percussion and jangled guitars get the song's blood pumping. Listeners will quickly get caught up in the song, and before they know it, Okereke is singing an affecting chorus about an average man living through July's London bombings. This is how the best moments in A Weekend in the City work: the band draws you in with its raw energy, and Okereke seizes the opportunity to get his message across.
"The Prayer," A Weekend in the City's centerpiece, is Bloc Party's other brilliant moment. Lyrically, the song is passable but forgettable, simply showcasing Okereke's desire to be the center of attention in a dance club. Fortunately, it is utterly stunning musically. Combining an Afro-stomp beat, synth-strings and Okereke's quirky vocals with more traditional indie rock melodies, "The Prayer" is perhaps Bloc Party's best song to date.
Sadly, these three brilliant songs (along with the decent "Waiting for the 7.18" and "Uniform") comprise the first five tracks of the album. A Weekend in the City may blow you out of the water for its first 20 minutes but then the record begins to become stale. There is a conspicuous lack of energy and experimentation in the latter half of the album. Bloc Party's latest is incredibly front-loaded, almost embarrassingly so: A Weekend in the City is like a runner who sprinted as hard as he could at the start of a race but could hardly cross the finish line.
If only Bloc Party had released its first five songs as an EP, this release would have been legendary. It's a little depressing that Bloc Party didn't have enough ideas to sustain an entire concept album. At least Okereke's lyrics remain consistent even as the album begins its swift decent from epic to ordinary. Hopefully the band's next album will produce music good enough to buoy Okereke's heartfelt messages. Until then, I'll be listening to the first half of A Weekend in the City on repeat.
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