At 19:30 GMT on 97.9-99.7 FM, history was made. Radio 1 aired the new Bloc Party single. It’s called ‘Mercury’ and it’s out August 11.
Though the band are yet to announce whether the track is to appear on their forthcoming third record, it’s maybe a sign that the direction they’re taking isn’t quite as deeply entrenched in the eurodance Eiffel 65isms ‘Flux’ sat in.
The video, below, features a variety of homo sapiens creating some lobster/horse Frankenstein hybrid with Kele Okereke hollering the usual banalities.
Want a bite?
You can order the disc-box from the band's website.
Which leaves little else to say other than ask: better than ‘Flux’?
awful
just awful.
My
ears aren't offended by this! Sounds OK for a first listen!
I really disliked it at first.
Now I think it sounds at the very least different from their other stuff.
I'm kinda liking it now.
^
this
Correct.
I am warming to it.
flux was waaaaaaaaay better.
Flux was waaaaaay worse.
Really?
I mean... really? Flux has a melody, it had rhythm it was... good! one of my favourite Bloc Party songs... this is just a fucking joke.
Maybe revise Silent Alarm again Kele, they were your glory days it seems.
That video
Is just so bad. Oh dear. The songs a bit shit n'all. And- whisper it- i quite liked Flux.
flux was really good.
but what the fuck is it with bloc party's videos? they're getting worse and worse.
i think it started when kele did that song with chemical brothers - that video was also utter pony.
2nd Listen
i like it.
like the stupidness of the video aswell. can see myself pulling ridiculous drunken dance moves to this at some later point. which is surely what is important.
a new
low
Discbox?
Man if ever they were accused of liking radiohead that little bit too much, now is the time. "dark" brass section on song containing "difficult" drum beat with an "electronic influence", anyone?
I can just imagine kele going "right now this albums is going to be our Kid A, ok?"
rather long thread about this on the boards too
http://drownedinsound.com/articles/3606775
Well the best I can say for it is that they're having a go at something different
and bands do get (rightly) pilloried for artistic stasis.
But the problem is, the song is terrible.
I wish they were still doing stuff like So Here We Are!
Quite right, its hardly The National Anthem
The steady decline in the quality of bloc party continues
Shame, I am a massive fan of their earlier stuff
This song has to have
one of the worst choruses I've ever heard. Seriously dire.
i'd love it if
they came out after this and produced an album of Nick Drake-inspired folk
my first impressions
i like the 'mer-cur-y' bit. that is quite catchy.
I'm glad they have let Matt Tong express himself again. he is an excellent drummer, i felt he was under usued on 'a weekend in the city'.
lyrically it seems to be a step up from some of the really adolescent stuff on the last album.
overall i think the song isn't great though. i just doesn't have the x factor of their early material, it seems to be trying to hard to be clever and edgy.
its way too long as well. the chorus is repeated about 15 times!
oh yeah
that video is just straight up dreadful.
where or where
have the Bloc Party I used to know and love gone?
Where have the interesting, weaving guitar parts and driving bass lines gone?
When I listen back to songs like Skeleton and So Here We Are etc it makes me sad.
I just don't understand the direction they're trying to go in. Just go back to what you're good at please.
flux was bad
this is new lows.
i just hope there getting this side of things out of their system ahead of the 3rd album.
credit where credit's due, they won't rest on their laurels and are trying new things.
well it's better than flux,
but still not very good. i thought they were going to move away from the electronic stuff?
It reminds me a little of...
Paul McCartney's "Temporary Secretary".
Anyone agree?!
oh god.
this is bad. i'm all for bands trying new things and expanding, but this is just a poor excuse at it. certainly this is just a one-off.
makes me
PUKE!
this is fucking
abysmal
FUCKING AWFUL
trying too hard to be "original"
I don't mind it actually
it's different, and the videos not bad providing you don't take it too seriously.
the video
is more interesting than the song.
I loved Silent Alarm..
but since that they have been utter shite. fair play to them for trying to 'develop' their sound etc, but it just hasn't worked. the musicianship is poor, and the less said about his lyrics the better.
having said that it would obv be wrong to simply 'go back' to doing what they did circa-2004.
perhaps they should just give up?
this video should've featured
Kele chasing noel from the mighty boosh through some woods on a bike
haha!!
Monkey bastard hands!
i dont like it
one bit.
I
...really like it. Good on them for constantly changing. Although I agree with the following Radiohead comment.
This song is so dire.
Flux had some redeeming qualities. This is just shite...