Despite the vaguely leftist connotations of their name, London’s Bloc Party sound much less Gang of Four-damaged than some of their stateside counterparts. Substituting terse quasi-anthemic pop hooks for angular clutter, they caught the attention of critics while opening for Franz Ferdinand on a UK tour in 2003; that led to a string of singles, collected on a self-titled EP last year, that wouldn’t sound out of place next to 90s Too Pure agitpop acts like Moonshake and Long Fin Killie. As a vocalist, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos mostly gets by on lugubriousness, but Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke actually knows how to sing and, more satisfying, when not to: his yelping Sprechstimme is a nice change from his otherwise choral beltings, which keep reminding me of the guy from the Outfield. On early B sides like “The Answer,” Okereke’s vocals clash with smeary neodisco drums, call-and-response guitar twang, and a visceral bass line that delivers like a 3 AM pot messenger. It’s an irresistible mix, but hearing Bloc Party on singles got me in the habit of catching them in small, bright bursts; their debut album, Silent Alarm (Vice), is half-filled with remakes of early songs, and their novelty wanes a bit at LP length. Still, tracks like “Blue Light” equal “The Answer” in showcasing the band’s great trick of withholding the powerhouse hook until the tail end of the song.
