Bloc Party Entertainment Art "Intimacy" (Vice) Released October 28, 2008

It is, however, an album you would’ve gotten high to while staring at Christmas lights in your friend’s dorm room.

At times fast-paced (like the intro track “Halo”) followed abruptly by slow, moodier songs (like “Biko,” an allusion to the South African Steve Biko, a black anti-apartheid activist), the album feels disjointed and mismatched.

As an album, “Intimacy,” gains influences from all over. Song titles curiously reference heaven, hell, and mythology. The bell-laden “Signs,” goes from a pseudo-Death Cab sound to a wannabe The Cure. “Blue bells in the late December, I see signs all the time,” sings Kele Okereke, channeling Robert Smith. The band pays homage to Nirvana, borrowing the lyrics “if I could eat your cancer,” one moment, then quotes poet E.E. Cummings the next (“I carry your heart with me / I carry it in my heart,” Okereke sings in “Ion Square”).

Undeniably, Bloc Party has acquired a motley crew of inspiration for their music and lyrics. But Bloc Party lacks the grunge punch of Kurt Cobain’s delivery, and the laissez-faire brilliance of Cummings’ poetry. And Okereke’s lyrics, though fun to dissect, rarely seem to fit the song itself.

Songs like “Ion Square” could easily be the wonderfully trite songs played in the closing credits of an 80s film, and while there’s a niche for the synthesized/digitized drums and guitar, I tend to have more respect for bands that produce less club-tracks, and can reproduce their sound live.

But there is one hard-to-ignore, stand-out song: “One Month Off” is catchier, with a clear chorus and hook. “I can be as cruel as you,” Okereke sings, “fighting fire with firewood. I can be as cruel as you, fighting lies with lies.” This track features a synthesized interlude that sounds like maybe your cousin mixed it on some program like My First Music Software kit, but it works. You’ll want to listen to it again and again.

Overall, though, “Intimacy” is the album you put on in the background of a party where the real appeal is drinking and talking and not the music itself. Energetic tracks followed by slow interludes, this musical vodka/Red Bull is too up and down to be consistent in a way an album should, and leaves the listener a bit drained. Bloc Party does have its loyal following, so perhaps it’s worth the gamble. Put it on in the background of a party, zone out to the lighting, and stumble home inadvertently with a tranny. Hey, Bloc Party’s not judging you.

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