Re: Bloc Party Four Album Download Rar
Nandan Barahona
Following the release of electronic music-inspired third album Intimacy in 2008 and single "One More Chance" the following year, Bloc Party went on an indefinite hiatus as their contract with Wichita came to an end.[9] During the break, members of the band continued with various side projects; lead guitarist Russell Lissack returned to Pin Me Down and joined Ash for a number of live dates,[10][11] multi-instrumentalist Gordon Moakes formed Young Legionnaire,[12] and frontman Kele Okereke released debut solo album The Boxer.[13] During this period, rumours spread about the future of the band; in interviews with NME, Okereke said he feared being "fired", and Lissack later implied the band were seeking a new vocalist.[14][15] Rumours of a reunion were fuelled by a Christmas photograph circulated on Twitter showing all four members of the band together, and four months later Lissack confirmed the group's intention to record a new album.[16]
The album was officially announced in a blog post by Okereke. In the post Okereke revealed the album title and cover art and stated that the album was the best thing that the band had ever done, making note of the fact that they wanted to challenge themselves by not "relying on protools or the invisible grid that seems to be mapping out all of popular music these days." The goal of the album was to create a sound that resembled four people playing in a room, a return to the formula of their debut album Silent Alarm.[18]
The album's cover art was designed by bassist Gordon Moakes. The four circles is said to represent a different member of the band. The colour red represents Okereke, blue represents Moakes, yellow Lissack and green Tong.
Four received "generally favourable reviews" from critics; at Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 68 based on 34 reviews.[19] The Observer's Phil Mongrendien has praised the album's "urgency" and said it bears "the sound of a band rediscovering what made them so special in the first place"[26] While criticising the "hesitant and unpolished" slower tracks, a review by Jaime Gill on the BBC Music website remarked that Bloc Party now sound "full of potential where just four years ago they sounded depleted" and touted the record as "2012's most exciting guitar album".[21]
The smart money says the title of Bloc Party's new album is a reference to the fact that it's the fourth album made by the original four members. Less likely is the possibility that it's also an acknowledgement of the four contentious years that have passed since their last LP, Intimacy, which included rumors that the band was breaking up or even considering moving on without Kele Okereke. The implicit solidarity pledge makes sense since the bulk of Four is built from the same elements as 2005's Silent Alarm, by far their most popular album-- sharp, pugilistic dual-guitar interplay, Okereke's S.O.S. vocal mannerisms, a jittery human rhythm section rather than a drum machine. But everyone appears to have lost a slight but significant step over the past seven years, and Four conveys the experience of watching an athlete reliant on explosive physicality realize that his body is betraying him.
It's all unconvincing because out of the post-punk Class of 05, Bloc Party were the ones voted "most likely to succeed" while the likes of Futureheads and Maximo Park were actually out partying. Bloc Party's 2007 album *A Weekend in the City *was personally revealing, sonically bold, and sorely underappreciated, and while Intimacy was rushed and not particularly strong, it at least had a sense of direction. Combined with Okereke's actual dance-focused solo album The Boxer and his work with Hercules and Love Affair, it's clear Silent Alarm was a launching pad, not a nest. Maybe that's the message of this record's best song: "V.A.L.I.S." describes the kind of man you hate to see your ex with, one that plays by the rules and has things figured out. Okereke tellingly admits before Four's sole effortlessly catchy hook: "He's not the real me." It's ultimately debatable whether or not Four is the "real" Bloc Party, but revisionist history isn't supposed to be a duller version of the real thing.
That organic feeling can be heard on Bloc Party's new album, Four, which is their fourth album. The band has been on hiatus the past few years, and one of the first songs they wrote when they regrouped is called "Real Talk."
Bloc Party has released four albums since forming in 2003 and each has an incredibly different sound. This makes its live shows intriguing because the energy and atmosphere of the concert can change completely depending on which albums they draw from. Bloc Party's choices range dramatically from their debut album, "Silent Alarm" (2005), to the electronically driven "Intimacy" (2008).
After a four year hiatus and rumours of division, disharmony and imminent collapse, Bloc Party return with one of the year's most eagerly anticipated releases, the aptly titled Four. There has been much speculation that this record would see the band return to their Art Rock roots, following the disappointingly lukewarm reception for their criminally underrated third album Intimacy. Intimacy attempted to fuse big beats and electronic elements with their trademark indie guitar sound, a move that seemed to estrange fans and critics and cause friction within the band itself.
Four marks a very definite return to a more guitar orientated sound - while never quite reaching the dizzy heights of their debut Silent Alarm there is still enough clever guitar interplay and sonic invention to satisfy existing fans and newcomers to the band alike.
In February 2005, the band released its debut album, Silent Alarm. It received excellent reviews from many critics, and made NME's Album of the Year list.[2] The album was successful enough to reach platinum status in the UK a year later. The band released its second album, A Weekend in the City, in 2007. This album reached number two on the UK album chart and number twelve on the Billboard 200. In August 2008, the band released their third album, Intimacy. 4 years later, in 2012, the band released their fourth album, Four, and in 2016, the band released their fifth album, Hymns.
Russell Lissack and Kele Okereke first met in 1998 in Essex. They saw each other again in 1999 at the Reading Festival and then decided to form a band.[3] Bass guitar player Gordon Moakes joined after answering an advertisement in NME, and drummer Matt Tong joined after an audition.[3] They were called Union at the start, the band chose to call themselves Bloc Party in September 2003 as another way of saying "block party".[4] The band have said in interviews that the name was not supposed to be related to the Soviet Bloc or the Canadian political party Bloc Québécois. However, Gordon Moakes said on the group's official Internet forum that the name was made by joining the eastern "Blocs" and the western "parties", in the political sense. Moakes also said that the name was not chosen only for this reason, but because it "looked, sounded, and seemed fine, so we went with it."[5]
Bloc Party's first album, Silent Alarm, was released in the UK in February 2005 on Wichita Recordings.[13] In the United States, it was released in March 2005 by Vice Records.[14] It was given a lot of praise.[15][16][17] It was voted as the NME album of the year for 2005,[18] and reached number three on UK album charts before being certified platinum.[19][20] The first single from the album, "So Here We Are", made the top 5 on UK charts.[19] Further, the singles "Banquet", "Helicopter" and "Pioneers", managed to reach the UK top 20 but did not do as well as "So Here We Are".[19] The animated music video for "Pioneers" was made by Shoreditch-based designers Minivegas.[21] It was number one in the NME video charts for four weeks.
Bloc Party's second album, A Weekend in the City, was produced by Jacknife Lee.[32] It was published by Wichita in the UK and Vice Records in the US and was released in February 2007.[33] However, it was leaked in November 2006.[34] It was released on the UK iTunes store before in shops, and reached second place in the Official UK Chart.[35] The album did just as well in Australia and Belgium.[36][37] It entered at number 12 in the Billboard 200, with 48,000 copies sold.[38] The first single, "The Prayer", was released on 29 January.[39] It became the single which did the best in the UK Top 40 for the band, reaching fourth place.[40] Before the release of the album, BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe played a live recording of the band at the Maida Vale studio, featuring both old and new songs, on his radio show on 30 January 2007.[41] On 1 February 2007, A Weekend in the City was made able free to listen to on the band's official MySpace page.[42]
In the mid-aughts, Bloc Party burst onto indie rock playlists with its confident brand of uptempo dance rock, adding an urgency to the taut post-punk sound favored by groups like Franz Ferdinand and Gang of Four. More than a decade later, the group's tempo has slowed down, but four-on-the-floor rhythms still dominate its latest album, Hymns, which layers synths behind lead singer Kele Okereke's ruminations on faith and love. New York synthpop trio VHS Collection opens this official Lollapalooza aftershow.
Ian Simpson, better known by his stage name Kevin Abstract, is a Texas native won a diehard following online with a series of confessional hip-hop mixtapes. His new album "American Boyfriend: A Suburban Love Story" moves in a more pop direction and sees him both rapping and singing about never quite fitting in. Listen to him spin a time-hopping dinner party soundtrack featuring songs by Sunny Day Real Estate, Donell Jones and more.
Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek are the masterminds behind the band Whitney. The band blends '60s folk and psych rock with a warm, orchestral sound on their debut album, "Light Upon the Lake." Listen as they blend folk and a touch zamrock for a party playlist perfect for the golden hour.
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