'Silent Alarm' (favorite album)

2 cup rhythm 

1 cup London feel

1 cup unique sound

1/2 cup strong progression

Mix all ingredients well to ensure a smooth consistency. Enjoy.

If one could make the London based band Bloc Party into a recipe it would resemble something like the one listed above. Their debut album, ‘Silent Alarm’, was released in February in 2005. The album sits at 14 tracks long and while that might appear to be on the long side, all 14 of them are completely necessary. 

The first four tracks Like Eating Glass, Helicopter, Positive Tension, and Banquet are energy filled tracks that display pizzazz and a stamina that is a prelude to the entire album. Each track has it’s own sound that is possible from the stupefying drumming from Matt Tong. His drumming is so precise and accurate it could be mistaken for a machine. The astonishing drumming fuses ever so nicely with the guitar and bass work from Russell Lissack, Kele Okereke, and Gordon Moakes. 

Throughout the album there is a keen sense of progression between the fast paced, energy filled songs, the steady heart felt songs and the songs that start out slow and climax just like a classic rock song. This Modern Love is a quintessential look at the range that Bloc Party can produce. While starting as your typical slow song it quickly progresses to a fast paced ballot. 

Silent Alarm is an album that you can listen to without skipping a song in its entirety. You may want to save yourself some time and just going ahead and put this album on repeat for about the next month or so.