Bloc Party

I'm working on a review of their LP, and I had a question for you guys … am I insane for hearing american emo influences throughout this? i'm not saying it's an emo clone or anything, but i hear plenty of jimmy eat world … especially on track 10 "So Here We Are", that song could have easily been on JEW's Clarity… track 7 "This Modern Love" is another jimmy eat world song …

I've heard a good half-dozen of their songs and I'd have to say I don't agree with your realizaton at all.

Originally posted by LonnieBeale:
I've heard a good half-dozen of their songs and I'd have to say I don't agree with your realizaton at all.

thanks for your input… have you heard tracks 7 and 10?

i don't hear any american emo. i've listened to the album many times. but then again, i've never willingly subjected myself to jimmy eat world. nothing on the bloc party album sounds like that "little girl your in the middle" song, though. what "silent alarm" does really remind me of at times is long fin killie, a scottish band from the 90s that had some of the same smartypants/art-rock tendencies.

Originally posted by BookerT:
i don't hear any american emo. i've listened to the album many times. but then again, i've never willingly subjected myself to jimmy eat world. nothing on the bloc party album sounds like that "little girl your in the middle" song, though. what "silent alarm" does really remind me of at times is long fin killie, a scottish band from the 90s that had some of the same smartypants/art-rock tendencies.

that's because "the middle" doesn't sound like jimmy eat world … i was referring to JEW's mid-to-late 90s stuff

if not JEW/Get Up Kids emo, than what does "So Here We Are" (track 10) sound like to you? it has the repetitive ringing guitars, yearning voice, chugging rhythm, pretty much everything.

(not being an asshole, honestly curious)

Write your own review.

It will be much easier for us to critic it if it's your honest opinions, not opinions you had validated/invalidated by the forum.

Originally posted by vansmack:
Write your own review.

It will be much easier for us to critic it if it's your honest opinions, not opinions you had validated/invalidated by the forum.

thanks for the tip smackie … i like to bounce ideas off of people, and none of my friends have the album … but i will end up writing what i think

I've heard a good half-dozen of their songs and I'd have to say I don't agree with your realizaton at all.

thanks for your input… have you heard tracks 7 and 10?

Thanks for snappy response…I've heard "This Modern Love" and some of their earlier singles and see no correlation between Jimmy Eat World and Bloc Party. I feel Bloc Party's work is more effortlessly "pop-y" than what most American emo bands attempt. More post-punk than emo-punk, punk.

I think Bloc Party will be outdone by The Ponys, and I have only heard 2 Ponys songs and 1 Bloc Party song

Itâ??s the oldest adage in rock: success breeds imitation. The massive international mainstream acceptance of nervy dance-rock groups like Franz Ferdinand and the Killers has spawned a growing legion of young bands heavily indebted to early-80s post-punk trailblazers like Wire and Gang of Four.

Armed with a cheeky moniker that evokes perestroika and discos, South Londonâ??s Bloc Party have risen to the top of this often derivative pack.

While their hyperactive debut LP â??Silent Alarmâ? â?? released in the US on March 22 â?? features the angular guitar riffs and driving rhythms that define their comrades, Bloc Party manages to transcend many of the clichés and pratfalls that countless similar bands encounter. The album rarely bogs down with repetitive ideas and Bloc Party refuses to take the easy route and simply rip off their predecessors.

Dynamic frontman Kele Okerere leads his lock-step rhythm section through impassioned rave-ups such as the opening track â??Like Eating Glassâ? and quieter ruminations like the emo-tinged â??So Here We Areâ? with remarkable ease for a debut album. With disaffected singers cluttering the indie landscape, Okerereâ??s cathartic yelps and impassioned wails propel â??Silent Alarmâ? to prominence.

The lead single â??Banquetâ? takes a page from the Franz Ferdinand playbook and seamlessly abridges the best of Bloc Party. In a perfect world, this track would thrust the band into the national spotlight. In the meantime, be happy you can still catch Bloc Party at a small venue like Black Cat on April 9.

Writing for the City Paper now?

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:
Writing for the City Paper now?

nah, still express.

Not one mention of "american emo influences" or JEW rip offs. Just a subtle reference to emo. I'm disappointed in you. Take the backlash!

I haven't heard the Bloc Party album yet (I know, I know) but a friend of mine saw them in Wales and is convinced that one of the songs is a direct ripoff of the Idlewild song When I Argue I See Shapes. She said they were great live, though.

There is at least one huge difference between Bloc Party and any Emo IMO. Bloc party has one or two songs that are a bit on the whiny side, but just barely, whereas just about all of the mainstream emo that's around these days is all whiny, all the time. Bloc party never sound like petulant children to me. When they moan about something, they come across as actually having something to moan a bit a bout. It seems to be that emo is painting itself into a corner of only singing about frustration. There are so many more emotions than frustration that one could infuse ones music with. I've got the whole Bloc Party album and about 6 other songs and it's their diversity while maintaining a distinctive (while somewhat derivitive, but hey what isn't) sound that impresses me. Props to HoyaSaxa03, great review.

Originally posted by vansmack:
Not one mention of "american emo influences" or JEW rip offs. Just a subtle reference to emo. I'm disappointed in you. Take the backlash!

hah … that point was really insignificant to the rest of the piece, i was just really suprised to put the bloc party CD in and hear a jimmy eat world song … i've listened to it a few more times (track 10, "so here we are") and it's definitely it …

but it really has no larger relevance than a "subtle reference" in a 200 word review

Originally posted by kurosawa-b/w:
I haven't heard the Bloc Party album yet (I know, I know) but a friend of mine saw them in Wales and is convinced that one of the songs is a direct ripoff of the Idlewild song When I Argue I See Shapes. She said they were great live, though.

I can't really think of a song on Silent Alarm that sounds like a direct rip off of When I Argue I See Shapes, but every new band sounds a little like some old band or another. In my opinion, the Idlewild song isn't all that original either. That's why I liked them in the first place, they had that post punk sound when everyone else was trying to sound like Oasis and Blur.

Sorry, "Silent Alarm" has been on repeat in the old 'pod for quite some time. Don't hear any Jimmy Eat World. "So Here We Are" in particular: The drumming is just way too good to be compared to anything by Jimmy Eat World.

Originally posted by tenfifteen:
Sorry, "Silent Alarm" has been on repeat in the old 'pod for quite some time. Don't hear any Jimmy Eat World. "So Here We Are" in particular: The drumming is just way too good to be compared to anything by Jimmy Eat World.

Kosmo, as a closeted Jimmy Eat World fan (and i'm guessing an owner of "Clarity"), you want to weigh in here?

haven't heard the record yet….