2012 should have been a second renaissance for Bloc Party. After taking a hiatus and every member going off for a solo career/side project/becoming Ash's touring guitarist, the band re-convened, released a balls-to-the-wall rock album (which I ranked the best album released that year), nearly completed a successful tour and was already planning to release new material quickly after.
What we got was the disappointing Nextwave Sessions (an EP so average, I felt disheartened reviewing it), drummer Matt Tong dropping out of touring late and what followed was a second, much more definitive hiatus. When news that not only Tong quit the band, but bassist Gordon Moakes too; Bloc Party looked finally ready to hit the big indie landfill in the sky.
But the band...and the brand for that matter, rather than settle for the sweet monetary deal for a reunion in a decade, reincarnated. Frontman Kele Okereke and guitarist Russell Lissack were still here, spinning the music press that they were the original Bloc Party, recruited a new bassist and recruited a new drummer from YouTube. They promised a new album, they brought hype and the press lapped it up.
Now, for those who don't follow my Twitter feed (which you should, because I'm occasionally witty) may have noticed that when the new Bloc Party delivered their first taste from album five; I wasn't too impressed.
Kele and Russell spent most of their radio premier talking about how much time and effort they spent playing with effects pedals, rather than perhaps addressing how generic and simple their lead single was. It was a bad start, but I let it slide, perhaps it was just a dodgy start and something simple to get some airplay to the average consumer.
So, now that Hymns is actually here, how does the new Bloc Party stand? Was The Love Within merely a misstep and the album itself is a reinvigorated, happier band utilising old and new styles?
The answer is of course no, in every way imaginable.
The Love Within opens us up as the same simple minded, effects pedals heavy affair. Months later, it's hasn't grown. It's only positive factor is the catchy chorus which is only catchy in contrast with the rest of the album.
The Love Within, bizarrely, does not set the tone of the album. Sure, there's other "rock" songs on the album, but the tone of the album is a bizarre mix of simple minded rock meets Ministry of Sound Chillout classics.
Into the Earth, a (of all things) Weezer knock off has Kele possibly explaining the mindset of the album. He awkwardly jumps from saying "'cause rock'n'roll has got so old, just give me neo-soul" before then delivering another awful line of "the fungai is helping this fun guy deliver".
His lyrics, which to be fair, have been rapidly slipping in quality since Intimacy, are in full descent here. He can write a decent hook, but in terms of storytelling, his writing is laughably bad; ranging from awkward to just groan inducing.
The highlights of the album are sadly relegated in the first half. The Good News, whilst a simple, plodding rock song, is the closest the band get to recapturing the days of old whilst injecting some soul with backing organs.
Only He Can Heal Me is more good Kele solo material than a band effort. It's a minimalist start and middle, but the ending mercifully lets Lissack throw some stuttering guitar playing. Had the album consisted of more of this, whilst generic, it would have at least been tolerable.
Different Drugs, whilst a bit too long, is similar to slower tracks like Kreuzberg and Signs and another decent track made last hurrah by default. It plods along at it's own pace before adding multiple layers of pitch altered vocals and longer-the-notes, longer-the-dread backing synths to finish it.
Part of the band's signature sound, regardless of changing genre's with each album, was how high tempo and pulsating the percussion was, even on Intimacy which included drum machines and effects. The drumming on Hymns however, is anything but. It's simplistic and unmemorable throughout.
The uneven tone is one of Hymns' major problems, another is just how boring the album is. None of the energetic, high octane traits of Bloc Party are here, even it's highlights are sapped of energy and lifeless.
Fortress is a retread of Obscene from Nextwave... (a highlight on that EP), made longer and duller. It tries to fall back on Kele's lyrics on a bed being a literal fortress but lacks any melody to carry the music. My True Name screams for a massive chorus, but settles for a short, generic bridge and goes back to mediocre quickly for another two minutes.
Living Lux closes the album. Easily, the worst closing track by a band which made great closers sound like child's play. Lacking a beat, built purely on a droning synth and Kele's vocals, it's unmemorable, insipid, dull as dishwater and mercifully ends our forty minute journey which lost all charm from the opener.
There is nothing here that sounds remotely like Bloc Party. Instead, it's a terrible Kele solo album, which sporadically features Lissack on guitar on a few tracks. It's Bloc Party in name only. It's Squeeze by The Velvet Underground in 2016.
A generic, lifeless and boring album which should never have been released under the Bloc Party banner and probably only was so it could sell better.
At it's best, it's simply a generic rehash of simple rock songs and overwrought chillout ballads. At it's worse, it's plodding, simple-minded and just plain boring.
Never have I listened to an album where the absent players are missed so much and where their previous albums have never sounded so much better.
Silent Alarm was raw and full of life, A Weekend in the City took that rawness and made it jaded and angry with metropolis, Intimacy took that and made it the unfortunate life of the party and Four brought it back to square one and turned it up to 11.
Hymns is nothing like them and when you don't have that as your core credential, you'll probably reach the same conclusion like I did when the album finished:
Why even bother?
3/10
H
@Retcon_Nation
No comments:
Post a Comment