Like Eating Glass is a kicking opening track. All drums and bass. And then Kele comes over the top, shouting "it's so cold in this house". It doesn't sound like a song that's been constructed, it sounds like four musicians running at you in a full frontal assault. Saw them at Splendour a few years ago. They opened with Like Eating Glass - one of the most intense and exiting openings to a concert I've ever seen.
There is a sense of urgency to this album, an aggressive energy. This is protest music. Not in the acoustic guitar, whiney sense. More of the take to the streets, light cars on fire and smash in shop windows sense.
One of the most exciting moments of the album comes in Positive Tension. The repetition of "why'd you have to get so hysterical" over the building drum and bass lines, then the climax of Kele shouting "so fucken useless". We defy you not to shout along with him.
Banquet is just as fresh, brilliant and shocking as it was on the first listen six years ago. This was the track that had so many of us saying "who the hell are Bloc Party?!" The pumping drum beat and duelling, syncopated guitars. Makes you pump your fist in the air and slap your leg with the other hand.
This album doesn't let up. Even Blue Light, which starts moody and slowly builds into another thumping bridge. She's Hearing Voices joins the exclusive club of songs with lyrics that everyone mis-hears. "white girl, pretty girl" is, apparently "red pill, blue pill".
This Modern Love is the best track on the album. "Do you want to come over and kill some time? Throw your arms around me." It was 2005 and we fell in love to Bloc Party.
For some reason, at the time of its release, this album was compared to Franz Ferdinand. Huh? And it was pipped by Antony and the Johnsons for the Mercury Music Prize. Lame.
So Here We Are is a sweeping beautiful song and probably should be the final track. But no, there are three more songs to come! It's the first time this album goes down a notch, but even for a moody ballad, it has a full on drum beat and a triumphant, screaming coda.
Admittedly, by track 13, it feels a bit long and maybe even repetitive. Even though we've listened to this album hundreds of times this is probably only the fourth time we've heard Compliments. Not a bad song but by this point we felt pretty done.
This album is energetic and demanding. It's serious and angry. And it's just as strong as it was when it was released. Bloc Party could release this album today and it would be huge and relevant. This is not music to sit back and enjoy. This is music to make you think and act.
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