you can't be serious [but probably are].

ryan is terminal. my ears swear they'll never forgive me.

1 out of 4 dude, you're doing good.

I think the issue here is that the EP isn't all that great. The recordings are inconsistent because they're old and from various sessions. It just doesn't do the band justice. I heard the potential, but wasn't blown away.

If you want to know what the big deal is, listen to the new album in its entirety. It seems like Senator heard only a few bits of it. It's not out in the U.S. 'til March, but downloads have been available since late November. I haven't been able to stop listening to it. It's not a perfect ten, and I'm sure they'll get better. The band really has something special, particularly if they hold onto the amazing drummer.

This from the guy who praised Razorlight and killed The Libertines. Ugh.

A Scissor Sisters fan lays the lumber on Razorlight. Now there's a streetfight with featherdusters.

you are correct, FnB, I only heard the EP, and it didn't blow me away. Your post is actually what I was looking for, someone tellng me WHY I should be liking it, instead of dismissing me as a hater. I guess I started the thread wrongly by pointing out a phenomenon that I had observed and applying it to this band. Thanks, Tony, I will keep my mind and ears open for the album.

i think you should listen to the album as well because, like you, i didn't like the EP, and i don't like the futureheads...but silent alarm is a very good album.

dude, jump on IM and i'll send it to you.

Soon as I get my new cpu (sometime next week) I'll hit you up.

I agree to a certain extent with Loogar. Only have the EP and only like one song. With that said, the one song, "Banquet" is tremendous. If the LP has a number of songs that even approach that one, I'll buy into the hype.

I also agree with the idea that we have a skewed concept of "hype." I literally know one other person who has any clue who Bloc Party is. 95% of the people I know have no clue who Interpol is, for Chrissakes.

Lastly, I love every second of the Futureheads album.

Or tell Bloor to get on AIM, and I'll send over to him.

BTW- I wasn't saying you were a hater, I was stating why I personally liked the record.

I would just like to say that I diasagree whole-heartedly with the Liz Phair analogy. Exile in Guyville would be on my Top 50 of the 90's easily. Whereas, the rest of Liz Phair's albums are a steaming pile of shit with an occasional decent song thrown in just often enough to trick me into buying 2 or 3 of the albums.

That was so incredibly defensive of me. I did a whole lot of defending there. Shit, this post is about 10x as defensive.

That totally proves my point. How can her debut be one of the best of the '90s and the rest of her catalogue be total cack when there's been absolutely no stylistic shift in her approach (ignoring that last Matrix thingee)?

The only difference between Guyville and Whitechocolatespaceegg is that one of them existed before the other.

well, doesn't that preclude the notion that one simply has better songs than the other? by this logic every rolling stones record is interchangable with every other.

I think someone could definitely make that argument about Stones albums. But I do agree that certain collections of similarly patterned songs are better than others. For example, Phair's songwriting on Whitechocolatespaceegg had improved since Guyville.

i, and it looks like a lot of people, disagree with you there.

Of course you disagree. Fuck man, everybody disagrees with me on that point (and many others). But I don't see how anyone can objectively say the static, mostly tuneless songs on Guyville are examples of better songwriting than the more melodic, more intricately arranged songs on her next two albums. I'm saying it's merely context that sways the vote.

well, that's kind of the point, it's not objective, it's subjective. maybe for some people these intricate melodies that you describe take away from the rawness that was present in her still pop stuff earlier in her career. personally i like whip-smart the best, but i can't see why someone would find anything out of whitechocolatespaceegg that wasn't already done better on her previous stuff.

I presume, then, that Bloc Party either made your best-of for '04, or will do so retroactively.

I know I went back and stuck (Brian Wilson presents...) SMILE on my best-of for '67 or '68. (Can't recall off-hand.)

For serious....

This thread has some very interesting points.

As far as Bloc Party is concern, you had it right originally, this thing is being hyped everywhere. It’s the main album so far this year, along with Bright Eyes, that has been getting the biggest buzz. Most people seem to like it a lot after they let it soak in a bit.

I got it last night, never heard the EP.

I hated the EP. I like the full-length, but will probably spend my hard-earned cash on bowling instead.

Bowling: 10/10
Sushi: 9.8/10
Bloc Party: 7.1/10