Silent Alarm

After what seems an insurmountable amount of speculation and press hype, Bloc Party finally deliver debut album ‘Silent Alarm'. The pressure is on for the London foursome to live up to the legacy, having been tipped as 'the new Franz Ferdinand' by just about every music publication around, with the NME going as far as declare them "the future".

With their eclectic tastes apparent with this album, having attributed the influences of Sonic Youth, Joy Division and The Pixies, whilst declaring their love for Prince, Madonna and Nelly, Bloc Party are seemingly trying to appeal to a universal audience. As previous singles 'Little Thoughts' and 'Helicopter' can contest, the art rockers have an ear for rowdy and shambolic guitar pop, however there is more to Bloc Party than their geek-chic looks and intellectual musings. With new single 'So Here We Are' the band explore the epic and melodic territory that catapulted Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Keane into the mainstream, crafting a beautifully captivating track where singer Kele Okereke laments on a time when he "tried really hard to be what you wanted/ ^but] it went wrong again".

The band also deliver the instant indie-dancefloor hit 'She's Hearing Voices', with its ramshackle drumbeat and Kele's pseudo-goth vocals providing an astonishingly successful prelude to a full-blown sing-a-long of "red pill/ green pil" before its climactic screeching guitar rock-out. The combined effort is enough to guarantee student loan-busting bids on eBay for the tracks' previous incarnation as limited 7" only release.

Further album highlights include the political diatribe of 'Price Of Gas', the up-tempo self-affirming 'Luno', contemporary lullaby 'This Modern Love' and 'Banquet', which provides enough jangling guitar and stop-start ethics to seriously rival Franz Ferdinand. At times 'Silent Alarm' sounds like mislaid session tracks from Blur's '6' album, particularly on tracks 'Pioneers' and 'Blue Light', but the artistic confidence of the whole project brings a cohesiveness to it all. 'Silent Alarm' is a consistent and concerted effort from a band that will undoubtedly prove to people that you really can believe the hype.