You're Messing With the Big Boys: A Review of Bloc Party's "The Nextwave Sessions"

My long listening history of Bloc Party begins with a babysitter.

In the lineage of all indie rock fans, is the cool babysitter. The one who comes over, and just changes your world. Destroys your whole view on contemporary music. In Spencer Owen's case, it's 1994, and the girl next door, who watched him on occasion, came over with Weezer's seminal (and brilliant) self-titled debut.

In my case, it's similar, but it's 2005 and I'm eight years old. My babysitter doesn't live in the apartment next to mine, but in one on Columbia Street, only a bloc(k) away. Days with this babysitter included trips to the Museum of Natural History, or hanging out at her workplace, the now defunct diner, the Red Rail.

But there was also music. At my tender age of eight, my ears hadn't been exposed to the glorious music that surrounds my life today. To me, music was the West Side Story original Broadway cast soundtrack, Foo Fighters, the Killers and whatever music my parents played in the car (to be fair it ranged from X to Bob Dylan to Dinosaur Jr. to Steely Dan to Marvin Gaye at times). My ears were then exposed, when my babysitter made me a CD. It's titled At Age 8, An Inspiration and it's still sitting in my desk drawer. Among other artists on the CD, were Interpol, the Strokes, the National, Cat Power, and Fat Boy Slim's (uncensored) "It's a Wonderful Night" (which my parents weren't happy about).

But there was one band that stood out to me. That band was Bloc Party. They had two songs on the disc, them being "Blue Light" and "This Modern Love", which are also both ballads. But, on these songs, Bloc Party still knew how to "rock". Quickly, these two songs led to an obsession over Bloc Party, to the point where I asked my babysitter for a CD of just Bloc Party music. Bloc Party had only one album in 2005, so what I got, was Silent Alarm.

And my story involving Bloc Party and my babysitter, unfortunately, ends there.

However, Bloc Party picks up again in 2011. I'm now a teenager, and the artists of choice are Titus Andronicus, My Chemical Romance, the Flatliners and Childish Gambino (that's a weird mix, right?). After several computer crashes and cleanings of the room, I lost Silent Alarm. But for some unknown reason, I re-purchased it on a whim, not even remembering any of the music on it.

What followed was a voracious re-obsession of Bloc Party, and I bought every album, single and EP they ever released. Imagine my sadness when I discovered that the band had gone on indefinite hiatus shortly after the release of their third full length, Intimacy.

But then the story picks up again (like I said, this is really long)! In 2012, Bloc Party came back with the release of Four, and it was... not good. It was clunky and uninspired, almost sounding like a Smashing Pumpkins rip off, and the only keepers were the ballads. I tried to convince myself that Four was good, considering the fact that I pre-ordered it. But it didn't work.

And finally, we arrive in the August of 2013, and two days after my birthday, Bloc Party release the EP, The Nextwave Sessions, before going on another indefinite hiatus. And it makes me both happy and sad to say... that it's pretty solid.

I'm happy that they've returned to what made them the best band in the world to thirteen year old me, but sad because they're leaving once again.

The EP has five songs, and only one of them isn't good. That title belongs to the opener, "Ratchet". I don't know how Bloc Party has gotten a whole audience to scream back a phrase like "we go ratchet" in 2013, but kudos to them for that. The song features the same boring guitar lines of Four and Kele (he legally dropped the Okereke from his name) tells me to get [my] bitch off his shit... which makes me feel uncomfortable.

However, what follows proves that Bloc Party can still be a good band. Some of the best Bloc Party songs are ballads, from "Blue Light" to "Plans" to "Tulips" to "Signs" to half the songs off A Weekend in the City. The second song on the album is titled "Obscene" and, it's a ballad. Over a bed of synths and delayed hand claps. The song is slinky, and it's no surprise it was produced by Dan Carey (Bat for Lashes, Chairlift). Kele has an effective voice, and where it may not seem the best for a ballad, it always works. His voice is supple and he makes an effort to make it sound "pretty". And like most Bloc Party ballads, "Obscene" is a break up song with Kele apologizing for everything he's done, claiming he's "been obscene to you".

"French Exit" is also a breakup song, but in a different manner. Kele paints himself to be, well, a dick. He confesses that the relationship was drab, and he's "hoping you could pick up the bill". The more angular, punk Bloc Party are exemplified through this song, with Matt Tong's triplet drumming, Gordon Moakes liquid bass (which still reminds me of Peter Hook) and Russell Lissack's serrated guitar lines, that can quickly switch to an Edge-esque solo.

The following song, "Montreal", again proves Bloc Party's ear for ballads, and turns out to be the EP's best song. It features a strong rhythm section and Kele's strong voice, and Lissack's guitar minimally cutting in at times. The song displays the same paranoid, yet sad storytelling from A Weekend in the City. Kele evokes excellent imagery with "the snow keeps falling, on St. Catherine". The story goes that Montreal is no longer Kele's home and he's forced to leave because "Tony keeps calling, says he wants his money".

The EP closes with "Children of the Future". It sounds like the song could've come from Silent Alarm with it's jerky guitars and Kele's vocal patterns. A song about "the children of the future" and how "time is on our side" can seem outrageously cheesy, but Kele's voice delivers these lyrics with such sincerity, that it's hard not to agree with him. Especially when his voice cracks, and it sounds as if he's crying when he delivers the line, "be all that you can be, be all we never were".

In the years that Bloc Party were gone, we saw a whole new legion of British artists emerge, all with something to say. From King Krule, to James Blake to the xx, to Yuck/Hebronix, all who are aiming their musical sights elsewhere, than what used to be the British indie landscape of the mid-2000s. What's strange, is that Bloc Party seemed to poised to succeed, when the Futureheads and Franz Ferdinand didn't, and yet they fell into the disarray that all stereotypical rock bands fall into. So the ending of "Children of the Future" can also be viewed as a warning, to not make the same mistakes that a once brilliant band like Bloc Party did.

Bloc Party - The Nextwave Sessions
8/10
Recommended Tracks - "Obscene", "French Exit", "Montreal", "Children of the Future"