Bloc Party 'Mercury'

Ever since Kele attacked Jack White for his views relating to artists and whether they do or do not use their craft to make political statements and take social stands (the former advocated music as a tool for social movements, the latter viewed himself as an entertainer first and foremost) Bloc Party have been a bit lame. Sure, there’s a place for social comment but surely that’s within the songs themselves and not as a dirty mud-in-the-face aside in the middle of a feature interview?

There is, however, one thing that Bloc Party and their transatlantic adversary share; an incredibly hard work ethic. Less than a year after undeniably brilliant and, at the time futuristic Silent Alarm hit shelves, with knife-edge tracks ‘Price of Gas’ chart toppers ‘Banquet’ and borderline ballad ‘She’s Hearing Voices’ the band were back with A Weekend in the City. Equally as impressive musically, although less immediately striking - perhaps because either a year later the throwback bands had abounded, or my original over-listening killed it – their sophomoric effort solidified their mainstream success.

And then the waiting game began. Like Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads, and many of the art-rock bands that came out of similar scenes in the UK we had a quick follow-up, followed by, well, nothing for quite some time. The Futureheads scrapped record labels, Franz Ferdinand scrapped recordings and Bloc Party, well, got political?

Anyway, they’re the first of their class out of the gates for a third release with the Mercury single consisting of two original tracks; ‘Mercury’ and ‘Idea for a Story’, two alternative versions of ‘Mercury’ and two remixes. And, with appropriately striking artwork in tow, Bloc Party are back. Compositionally the titular track is pretty status quo, but they’ve appropriated the music community’s love for all things mariachi and African with trumpets and violins that add a drama that was missing from A Weekend in the City, and there’s a sweet timpani-drum bridge that crescendos back into staccato horror movie violins. Furthermore, ‘Idea for a Story’ totally goes old-school sweet Silent Alarm on it, until it descends into fairly emotionless rave quarters.

Overall, brilliant single, just save the rave for the remixes.