Bloc Party "Weekend in the City"

let me pre-empt this by saying, i love Bloc Party. First time i heard them was working at the edge and the single BANQUET was brought in from their album SILENT ALARM... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdkmhquF60o (watch it by clicking on that thing)....i, as well as everyone at the table, knew it was a hit. so of course, when the promo copies of the full length came in, i was first in line to snatch it up....and let me tell ya, from start to finish, that record is amazing....simple, rock and roll with catchy lyrics and a really cool production quality that was just screaming "we're the next big shit!!!" and while banquet was and is a dope song, there are 12 other equally or MORE as dope as that single...for example, the opening track says 'like drinking poison, like eating glass...' that's just good shit. my current favorite(it rotates, you know that) is track #3 called POSITIVE TENSION http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYomPOvDllQ (the video is super dope too....pun sort of intended)....either way, its a solid, brilliant, ahead of its time record....beginning to end....you're just as boring as everyone else....nothing ever happens....ok, ok now to the follow up: 2 years after silent alarm came A WEEKEND IN THE CITY.i was like a kid in a candy store, so excited to spin this over and over and over and over again....then i heard the single 'i still remember'....well apparently, they DIDN'T still remember, cause if they did, this would be a better song(what i mean here, is that the single was fucking SHIT....in the worst way, it was awful)....being the optimist(hahahah) that i am, i gave this amazing band the benefit of the doubt and when the promo copies came in, i was first in line to snatch it up.....and then i got a divorce and left town....put all my cds, etc...in boxes...forgot i even had the 'new' bloc party because i was still busy listening to the 'old' (which leads you to the correct conclusion that the shelf life for silent alarm is astounding...one of those i can listen to over and over and not get pissed off or bored) anyway, i found some cds not long ago, still in the cellophane...hence the blog...one of them being a weekend in the city...so i was super stoked, threw it in ye olde cd spinner and sat back....within 2 songs i knew i hated it...but i kept listening....within 4 songs i thought i was going to cry because it was so bad...but i pressed on...by the time the record had played out, i was ready to toss it out the window and say good riddance. for a couple of weeks, i could not figure out why i hated it so much, other than the very superficial facts of 1. its just really bad and 2. i think i want to break it.....i gave it another spin on my trek to slc this past weekend and i figured it out....on the first album, they were straight up rock and roll kids with respectable but limited musical range....SIMPLICITY....complete with hand claps...who doesn't love a song with fucking hand claps?????? a very tribal back beat that is 'heavenly in its brilliance and hard to master' (thanks mojo for being a poet so i don't have to). on their second album, bloc party decided they would learn to play their instruments, and play them well mind you....and write some sticky, top 40 style lyrics....in this move, they may have gained one more listener (undoubtedly some wanna be euro-trash kid who eats too much cheese) but lost this one....it sounds like they are just trying too hard, they muddy the waters with actual guitar playing instead of just beating on the strings of silent alarm....i know, it may not make too much sense to say that a band is WORSE for learning to play BETTER...but trust me on this one, i hope the next one (due out sometime this year, still untitled) goes back to the basics of the 'party.....complete with hand claps

Bloc Party "Weekend in the City"