Silent Alarm

BLOC PARTY
Silent Alarm
(Vice)

This is the next album everyone is going to be listening to by the next band everyone will be talking about, and it’s obvious from the bad ass opening of the first track, “Like Eating Glass.” This London four-piece produce complicated, electronic orchestrations, blended seamlessly with tight-knit indie-rock drenched in hooks and crafted by truly deft musicians. Each song is so densely layered, the three-hundredth listen sounds as fresh as the first. Singer Kele Okereke’s voice jumps left and right, speaking and shouting in bursts between electronic lifts rising to a plateau of pretty-boy singing before guitar-god rock breaks things back down again. The skill this band employs could plant suspicions that they’re a popular, more experienced band, hiding their identities to release a completely different album than they could otherwise, but, in fact, these newcomers aren’t widely known superstars — yet.

Grade: A
REVIEW BY: MICHAEL DELGADO