 London’s Bloc Party offer a classier celebration on their second album, A Weekend in the City. Not on the guest list: hipsters. |
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Bloc Party avoids the sophomore curse by doing what too few alternative bands do well—improving their original energy level while finding the delicate point between its core sound and the need for updates that will expose new potentials in that identity. They accomplish this tricky goal by never giving new ideas permission to upstage the hurricane of tight noise given even greater urgency by bluntly confessional lyrics that warn in agonized shouts of London alienation. In 2007, indie sensations are considered betrayers of their promise even when they show signs of progress. Bloc Party can’t avoid such a shallow attitude, but their intelligent passion guarantees they will survive it.
