After Bloc Party went mum for a couple years and vocalist/guitarist Kele Okereke began focusing on his solo work, many thought the band was essentially over. But they dispelled those notions when they revealed they’d be releasing an album this year. Earlier in the month we heard “Octopus” from their forthcoming album Four. This weekend, they revealed another track entitled “Day Four.”
While “Octopus” is more along the lines of A Weekend in the City, “Day Four” brings the band back to their original roots, the classic Silent Alarm. It’s a mid-tempo number with a catchy guitar riff that lingers for most of the song, backed by a steady percussive rhythm. The song’s subtleness definitely pushes Okereke’s vocals to the forefront, showing off his impressive range with his unique vocal timbre. It peaks beautifully at around the 1:20 mark, where reverb is then added to make it a bit more dramatic. A repeated tremolo-filled guitar riff along a layer of strings and ghostly vocal melodies close out the track, fading away to a resolved close.
Fans of Silent Alarm will definitely love “Day Four.” But based on what they’ve released thus far and the songs that they’ve played live, Four may be an album filled with songs that span a wide range in sound – from electronic to post-punk to…a sound that’s aggressive evidenced by “3 x 3.” If there’s one thing that ties these songs together, it’s that they’re consistent in quality. Listening to “Day Four,” you’d never know they were coming off such a hiatus.
Four is due out August 20th on Frenchkiss.
