Monday, July 7, 2008

New Bloc Party Single/Video: "Mercury"

Oh boy. Just watch the video and then make the jump for my ramblings.

. So Kele Okereke's obsession with dance music and club culture have been growing ever more apparent as time goes on (see "The Prayer," "Flux," and almost every recent interview with Kele). But even with those other dancier songs, Kele & co. would keep the guitars blazing, or at least maintain a fairly high attention to big hooks and strong melodies.

On the new single "Mercury" (from the album in progress, which is being produced by both Epworth [Silent Alarm producer] and Lee [A Weekend In The City producer]), Kele seems to throw caution to the wind and indulge all of his heart's dance music desires. And, being probably the biggest Bloc Party fan ever, I'm a little nervous. I'm all for a band's musical growth, but it seems here that it's more of an indulgence of Kele's changing musical tastes than a whole band progression (not sure what guitarist Russell or bassist Gordon are doing on this track [if they're doing anything], and I'm not sure how drummer Matt likes splitting duties with a drum machine). I'm also wondering how this could possibly be recreated in the live setting without heavy use of prerecorded parts.

Not gonna hit the panic button on the whole album just yet, but I'm hoping the band doesn't swim around in this area of the pool for too long...the water's looking a bit murky.

P.S. The cultural/social/political commentary that the video is trying to make is beyond me.

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