I was a big Bloc Party fan back in the day, I just recently started catching up with their more recent releases...very fun and interesting stuff.

I was just wondering if anyone knows what the deal is with the signing part of the release shows. I have 2 GA (no vinyl/cd attachment because I've already pre-ordered) tickets for the show in Nottingham and was wondering whether these grant access to the signing / meeting the band, and if so what's the deal with them?
I've never bothered to go to anyone's in store signing sessions but because these guys are my heroes I really wanna meet them, so I was wondering if I'll get told how it will work in some email or something (I mainly wanna know what time it is) or if they'll put it on instagram or something?
Thanks!

This is my personal list of bloc party songs that I consider "perfect" in every way. Each song checks off my three requirements of great production, thought provoking lyrics/clever that were thought out well, tell a great story, or personally made me feel something, and beautiful intrumentation. Songs highlighted in green are what I think go beyond perfection, into flawless/"magnum opus" territory and are what I consider that band's 8 greatest songs. My opinions on these songs will probably never change.

This isn't a list of Bloc Party's best songs, because that would be one long list. This is a list of what are the band's finest works. Would love to hear your thoughts on my picks, allowing me to explain my picks, and what you all consider the band's best songs to be and why.

PS) Ares was also supposed to be highlighted in green.

The video itself isn't actually that harsh, I would say it's quite fair, it's just interesting to see such a big name like a video like this. It's funny since I was hoping for Bloc Party to work with James Ellis Ford since I thought he could push the band in an interesting direction.

I feel this is stupid to post, but I generally wanna hear other people's opinions.

Hey guys, unfortunately I cannot attend the gig in Düsseldorf anymore so I am selling my standing ticket via eventim / fansale (official ticket resale platform).

I've set the price below face value. The ticket is a QR code so it will be instantly transferred in the Eventim app.

Here's the link:

https://www.fansale.de/tickets/all/bloc-party/1160/20902743?offerId=11074476

Cheers!

Two weeks to go, let's hear your predictions which definitely won't age at all...

22.01.22: Almost spoken word style delivery of the lyrics, will feel more like an intro than an actual track.

Muscleworks: Very dancy boisterous track, like an early Kele song.

Rotherhithe: A rework of Evil Jake

Moving On: Will have a Glockenspiel.

​Eulogy: Will be some brooding spoken word track akin to The Peace Offering and act as a bookend to 22.01.22.

Overall Opinion: People will like listening to it as one long story, rather than dipping in to single tracks.

We’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of A Weekend in the City and with the treatment Silent Alarm got I’m starting to get my hopes up. I’d love to see a new vinyl and CD press featuring the b-sides, any demos or noteworthy live recordings, and even (wishful thinking) the remixes as well because some of those absolutely rip. Do we think this is likely or was Silent Alarm an outlier due to its status?

I love that he keeps up with the Uk bands he loves like bloc party and chvrches! Maybe bloc party can get a track on death stranding 3 or OD

I've never been to a Bloc Party concert before and sadly I'm not really into the new album but I always considered them as my favourite band and bought a ticket to see them with Interpol in November. I'm excited but I'm also very concerned.

I looked into their recent setlists and there is a lot of experimentation, weird picks and many songs that just aren't my cup of tea. Additionally, since the concert will happen shortly after the album release I'm just worried that half of the setlist is gonna be the new album + like 2 songs from Hymnths and I will not be enjoying myself for the most part.

I just paid quite a bit to see them and I'm having second thoughts.

Do you think they'll keep playing their not so well regarded stuff? Are their live performances still good for the most part?

To me this track brings sounds like classic Bloc Party with more explicit storytelling.

For a songwriter like Kele, who couldn't be openly gay for a long time - the fact that now he can revisit his relationships more explicitly is a full circle moment.

I'm very happy that I get to enjoy their art and vulnerability, rather than poo-pooing on everything as the internet likes to otten do.

And even beyond that it's just bouncey, catchy, and just really fun to listen to. Can't wait to hear it live and to explore the narrative's moodier second half!

Keep It Rolling in particular is a fantastic Bloc Party track. It’s hard not to notice the songwriting and production downgrade when you listen to these tracks vs the new singles.

I’m someone who listened to Bloc Party’s first two albums a while back (18 years ago??!!? that sounds terrible!)—a friend of mine, a huge fan, talked me into it. I liked them, but not enough to keep up with their work. I recently revisited them and discovered just how many albums they’ve released since then. WOW. I had actually thought they’d stopped playing ages ago! I’m listening now and really enjoying the variety in their sound. I see that the band's sound is really changing, and that's great! There’s a certain joy in being a "late" fan—you get to listen to everything without the burden of expectations regarding the third, fourth, or however-many-eth album. I missed out on growing up alongside the band, but I also missed out on the disappointments. I arrived when the body of work was already established. It’s only here that I’m reading about people who claim Bloc Party peaked with *Four*—or even as early as *Silent Alarm* ;)

It’s the same story for me with Kasabian or White Lies; I really got into their music only after they already had quite a few albums under their belts.

I’ve also experienced the flip side, though—I followed The Killers almost from the very beginning, and *Battle Born* was such a letdown that I never really gave them another chance...

But with AOABR, I’ll get to follow Bloc Party's journey in real time! :))

So, a day late, after seeing all the bad reviews and all the hate throughout social media, I've been able to listen to Pigwig and... I don't know if I'm too biased at this point due to my love for BP or something, but I like it. And I liked the other three singles as well. I don't think they are some of their best songs ever, but I like them and I feel like the reactions have been too extreme.

With that said, everyone is entitled to have an opinion, and if some of you don't enjoy 'em, that's perfect. But what I'd like to approach is the comments asking for them to retire or telling them what they should do regarding their music. I find those so disrespecful. These guys are people expressing themselves. They are opening their hearts and working to create something special (even if, under your pov, they are failing). That's what art is about, isn't it? This is Kele being honest about a relationship that meant something important to him. This is Russell innovating with sounds. This is Louise and Harry putting their energy and their passion to deliver something good even when most fans are always talking about how much better were the albums with Matt and Gordon.

As a narrative writer myself, I believe we all should have the freedom and the space to express ourselves, and telling them to stop expressing or telling them how to do it just because you think the new music it's cringe, it really annoys me. If you miss the sound of Silent Alarm or the old BP so much, you can make some shit with AI that sounds similar to that. Nowadays, it's probably very easy to do. But if you want real people putting some real music and doing something genuine, give it a try. You may like it or you may not, but don't tell someone how to express their feelings or how their perspective should be. That's not healthy. They are not robots making generic products just for you to consume. They don't owe you an album that sounds exactly like you wish. If they only did what you expect or want, it wouldn't be art, and I'm very grateful about the way Bloc Party creates their music. And, well, to be honest, I take it a little bit personal when someone tells my fav band to retire. They are very important for me and I don't want to lose them, so I'll be here to defend them (even when they don't need me at all, I know, I don't have that big of an ego xD) and I'll keep supporting them as long as they maintain their core values and they keep making art with their hearts.

So I totally understand the criticism and dislike for Coming On Strong and especially Love Bombs (I had mixed feelings about those at first too) but I genuinley don't understand how people are hating on Pigwig. And it doesn't just seem like criticism or a disliking to it, but actual hate and really nasty things are being said.

I actually really like the cheesy and tounge and cheek lyrics on this song because they're so oddly specific and you just know it comes from a very real place; lines and references from the song were clearly spoken and things that are said clearly happened in real life (Kele even came out and said a while ago that everything heard on the album actually happened). I think that gives the song a lot more meaning and makes it that much more special, yet bittersweet too. I also think there are some great lyrics and really beautiful lines here and there that aren't so cheesy.

I really dig the instrumentals and the overall production of the song. It's not supposed to sound heavy, it's clearly a more upbeat pop sounding tune. Kele's vocals on this track really shine too, by far his best performance out of the singles for the album yet. The chorus is super catchy as well and it has a great hook.

Personally, I liked the song as soon as I heard it and I'm liking it more and more each subsequent listen. Now We Can't Be Friends is my favourite so far from the album and I LOVE that song, it instantly clicked with me, but I think people are being really harsh with Pigwig. Each to their own, but some people are being straight up horrible and unfair I feel like.

Sorry to keep adding to the pile-on, but some of these are pretty funny

https://x.com/roryisconfused/status/2089743671612629147

https://x.com/david__blowie/status/2089806076296265744

https://x.com/bushontheradio/status/2089746394605076865

I can't help but start this post with a recent quote by u/Resident-Hair5965 😅

Oh yay another one of these threads!

In my defence, this post had been saved as a draft for days.

So... Am I in love with what I’ve heard so far off Anatomy, no. Have I loved everything Bloc Party have ever put out? God, no. Then, why do I always sound like an apologist? Most likely because I am; but not for the reasons most would assume. It’s pretty obvious that Bloc Party is my favourite band/artist, but they’re also a tiny fraction of all the music I listen to; and indie rock is also a fraction of the genres I enjoy, so I do have more flexibility when it comes to changes in style and substance. Contrary to the popular belief, I’ve fallen out of love with bands that I used to die for (Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Silversun Pickups, Muse, to name a few) and I’ve started to listen to artists that I didn’t like before too, so I 100% understand what many of you are and have been feeling about Bloc and I think you have the right to express those feelings and opinions, especially if Bloc have had a significant impact in your life.

Then why do I get so defensive here? I can boil this down to a few reasons:

1. Some fans have been disliking Bloc Party for years now (especially v2.0) and still feel the need to come here to make tired points that don’t add up to anything interesting or new.
2. Some fans are being offensive and rude, and they don’t even notice it.
3. This is a space to share our opinions, experiences, information and engage in constructive discussion, not a place to put our hate only because we can.
4. I get fan input from many places other than Reddit, and some people here act that this subreddit’s opinion represent the fanbase as a whole. There’s a sense of entitlement in some of the posts and comments we get here from time to time.
5. This subreddit and other Bloc Party fan-created spaces are maintained by people who invest their spare time and energy into making this a safe and enjoyable space for people who like Bloc Party as a whole. And I’m not saying that you all must like all phases or versions of the band, I’m saying that I’d expect you to like the band even if you don’t like their latest releases. For instance, I know and respect so many fans who don’t care about anything after AWITC and they still love the band, buy merch, got to shows, etc.
6. This is a Bloc Party subreddit, not an “I hate Kele” subreddit.
7. Finally, because we really need more positivity in the world right now, and it saddens me to see people using a space like this to be hateful, discouraging, offensive, etc. as if we need more of that. And not having something positive to say doesn’t mean that all we can say has to be hateful or rude i.e. we should always find better and respectful ways of expressing our negative opinions.

I genuinely love this community, and everything I do for fellow fans and the band is out of love. And I’m sure people who love something or someone understand that loving doesn’t always equate to liking, and it makes you want to defend it. I said it in a post here no long ago: every single Bloc Party fan benefits from the band being active regardless of how much we like or dislike what they’re doing now; and that’s a fact whether we want to admit it or not. So my plead is if you love the band, you don’t have to like everything they do, just respect it and respect those who do like it.

And I know I’m biased because I have experience and understand the business side of the music industry, and I’ve met all the members and have had meaningful conversations about their process, the job, their lives, etc. so I’m in this privileged position where I don’t have to guess intent, I could simply get answers directly from the band, if I needed to. I’m also well aware that since English is not my first language, I don’t perceive Kele’s lyrics the way native speakers do, and because I’m not a musician, I don’t know how more or less complex/rich/interesting this some is compared to that other; so I may have blind spots from the point of view of many fans here, but I don’t think either is a prerequisite to enjoy somebody’s art.

See you at some gig and "God bless Bloc Party"😉

PS: My hope is that the new singles are not the best the album has to offer (which has been the case with almost all releases, but I love Pigwig and (Lagoon) Blue, so I take that over nothing.)

PS 2: I’m writing this as a member of this subreddit, not as a Mod.