Bloc Party- Intimacy

This album starts with the quiet serine sounds of a choir before kicking off with swirling guitars and pounding drums shouting (metaphorically) we're back and were hungry for change. The opening track ares screams in your face quite literally, with a relatively rappy style that have been shown on previous tracks such as "She's hearing voices". The section of sweet singing at 2:17 is almost as much a shock as someone shouting in a quiet silence, with the proceeding racket grabbing you and shaking you the pause is one of unease not knowing when to expect the next throttling.
The 2nd song and 1st single is mercury showing their lust for experimenting and testing themselves. Starting with the effects on the vocals with kele shouting "m-mercury's in retrograde" he starts to loop his own voice as a thumping beat comes in before kele keeps the theme of a more rap-come-sing style. A brass set comes in building to intense cruscendoes as though in an old fashioned horror movie. As it all hits a peak and promises a change of style, a more aggresive, experimental style in comes halo, bringing closer to the bloc party we know. Good but nothing original.
Biko is a lulling song with a crisp high voice, singing beautiful lyrics such as:
--for my sweetheart,
the Melancholic
you crossed the river states
and the waves have taken you away
as I lay my head on your chest
I can hear it in your veins
wake me up when you come to bed
so toughen up biko toughen up biko toughen up
this world isn't kind to little things--
You can feel the sense of loss and love, as well as helplessness about the person involved, its their most beautiful song to date along with signs.
Signs carries the same emotional punch with lyrics such as:"I can sleep forever these days,Cause in my dreams I see you again" and "I see signs now all the time,That you’re not dead, you're sleeping,I believe in anything,That brings you back home to me".
My personal favourite and destined single success is One Month Off, choppy guitars reminiscent of Helicopter with a bouncy beat and aggresive powerful lyrics "I can be as cruel as you, fighting fire with firewood".
Zepherus brings back memories of the prayer with monk like drones and an incessant beat however it follows closer to the likes of waiting for the 7.18 with kele wailing emotional lyrics about a need between two people as well as regret.
As the album draws to a close "better than heaven" comes in merging the two types of song from throughout the album into one with ballad like singing and a higher tempo pulsing chorus in one of the most successful tracks on the album.
The album closer is Ion square which is largely dissapointing, not for content rather originality, mimicking its more succesful,older brother blue light.
All in all it reaches for the sky and gets the clouds, striving for an album that experiments whilst having beautiful songs, floorfillers and songs that shake you to the core, but is mixed in its results. Stand-out tracks are one month off, biko and better than heaven, and as a whole manages to show glimpses that there on the road to an album which fulfils silent alarms promise. Keep striving lads and good effort: 8/10