moments

Moments: A Review of “A Weekend in the City” by Bloc Party.

I spent my formative teenage years in the prairies: small towns, small-minded people and an even smaller tolerance for anything moving in a new or different direction. I found myself longing for city life, and all the adventurous, romantic folly that came along with it. I found that one of the only ways to escape the boredom of my small town existence was through a mixtape that I called “Big City Nights” (taken from perhaps the greatest music video these eyes have ever seen). DJ Shadow, (Entroducing….is still the greatest night time driving album ever made) My Bloody Valentine, and even Jay-Z (cut me some slack, I was young) graced my headphones as I laid back in quiet, street light bliss. If “A Weekend in the City”, the latest release by the London based band Bloc Party, had been released during my Grade 12 year, I could guarantee you it would have found a place on that mix. Not only does “A Weekend in the City” give you that long exposure, city street image in your mind (the album art by Rut Blees Luxemburg helps), but it poses a lot of ideas about the state of our generation.

There’s something special about this record, something that sets it apart from the average modern rock album. Kele Okereke, the band’s singer and lyricist, has written one of the most important statements of the 2000s. Every song seems to speak about something that our culture seems to blindly accept, not realizing the effects. “Our parents suffered for nothing”, “the 90’s/optimistic as a teen/now it’s terror/and plane’s crash into towers” or “I have decided/that at 25/something must change” are just small examples of how rather than succumbing to write songs about typical boy loves girl situation, Okereke would rather take a look at what’s going on with society. Another dominant theme on the record is Kele’s longing for change, which is culminated in one of the best tracks on the record, “Kreuzberg”. As great as it is to see a band trying to say something different, the really beautiful thing about this record is the music. Everything screams “massive”, just as their debut “Silent Alarm” did. Matt Tong’s drumming is still incredibly tight and huge, and the production is, once again, second to none. Try to not tap your foot to “Hunting for Witches”, or to nod your head to “I Still Remember” or to flat our shake your butt to “The Prayer”. Of course, because of its danceable nature, this record is definitely a mood record: It can make you look around your surroundings, and long to make a change in the mundane; it can make you dance harder than you could have ever imagined; it can be the record you put on as you fall asleep after a late night of adventures with friends. It has everything a good record needs, and because of that, it can cover any range of emotion you might be feeling.

I think the most important part of this record is summed up in the chorus of “Waiting for the 7:18”: “Just give me moments/not hours or days”. People are going to criticize this record to death: it’s too produced, it’s not as good or as poignant as their last record. I’m trying not to be a cynic, and this record demands a person to look at it with open eyes. This record is a statement for the moment we’re in, whether our generation wants to accept it or not. We buy too much, we drink too much and we waste far too much time on “crosswords and sudokus”. Bloc Party are just four guys looking for a home, discontent with city life, and I think that longing for home is all too familiar with every twenty-something.

What are we going to do about it?

Bloc Party on Myspace