I Like Intimacy (and Let’s Face it, Who Doesn’t?)

Album: Intimacy

Artist: Bloc Party

Genre: Indie Rock/Dance Punk

Year: 2008

Label: Witchita/Vice

I’ll be honest, I was not sure what to expect from Bloc Party. An English Indie Rock band, Bloc Party has met with resounding popularity both in their native land and over seas. Popularity means jack-squat to me and is, these days, often a sign of over-hype rather than actual talent. This being said, I like Bloc Party. I think they’re a quartet of talented fellows who share my appreciation for the Post-Punk scene circa Entertainment!-era Gang of Four. In some ways I find that Gang of Four could be the original dance-punk band (though credit is due elsewhere) and the gyrating spirit that they brought to their music is similar in style to what Bloc Party does today.

Previous to Intimacy, the only Bloc Party track I’d heard was “Hunting for Witches”, off of their 2007 album, A Weekend in the City. “Hunting for Witches” is a bad ass combination of dance rhythm funk and snaking guitars which had me moving for weeks. The overall effect of Intimacy is to get you to move and it does its job extremely well. Almost all of the tracks are infectious, almost feverishly danceable, notable exceptions being the slower paced “Biko” and the epic “Zepherus”, which sounds like Bloc Party hired a church choir. Good drumming is paramount and Bloc Party’s drummer is a beat machine, banging out hyper fast rhythms for the rest of the band to rock over. The guitars often sound like they’re being fed through a distorter, giving them an even more electrified feel than they would have normally. The problem with Intimacy (besides it’s obvious complicating effects) is that none of the tracks make me want to move in the same way that “Hunting for Witches” did. Maybe that’s a fluke, maybe I’d hate the rest of A Weekend in the City, but the fact is that none of the tracks are quite as infectious as that one song. But this album does have both “Trojan Horse” and “One Month Off”, both of which contain that fever pitch rhythm I want to hear from Bloc Party. One Month Off does come extremely close to “Hunting For” Witches and is probably the best track on the album as a result.

Maybe I’m not being fair though. Maybe I shouldn’t be comparing a whole album to the one track I’d heard before. But it’s my only frame of reference and I have to go with what I’m given. I could have gone and listened to A Weekend in the City as well, but I only have so much money. Regardless, comparisons aside, Intimacy is still a great, dancey album and it will make you move like a motherfucker.