English indie-rockers Bloc Party surprised a lot of people when they announced their third studio album’s release a few days prior in a live webchat. So for those few days, I let my excitement build only to be disappointed by the disaster that is Intimacy. 
The things that made Bloc Party good were the fun dance numbers to draw in listeners and then the skills of guitarist Russell Lissack kept you hooked. This album takes a more experimental turn and focuses more on the electronica aspect of the band and pretty much eliminates guitar and bass guitar. Sure, those instruments peek through on a few tracks like “Halo” and “Trojan Horse”, but overall, they’re missing.
My main problem with the lack of guitars is that they used to balance the vocals of Kele Okereke, which are much more exposed on this record. The exposure makes his yelps on songs like “Ares” downright annoying.
I’m also surprised by how the band could delve more deeply into electronica on this album, but eliminate any possibility of dance, which will disappoint fans of the first album. Although, “One Month Off” is stylistically similar to “Banquet” from Silent Alarm.
The band has some nice slow songs on this album and I did enjoy hearing a different sort of intro to “Signs” with the xylophones. However, the album is so laden with slow songs that they start to get repetitious and boring, so be warned.
Bloc Party’s Intimacy was digitally released on August 21, 2008. The physical version will be released via Vice on October 27, 2008.
Tracklisting:
01. Ares
02. Mercury
03. Halo
04. Biko
05. Trojan Horse
06. Signs
07. One Month Off
08. Zepherus
09. Better Than Heaven
10. Ion Square
Written by: Bethany
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