BLOC PARTY
Alpha Games (Infectious)
Alpha Games is album number six from Bloc Party, one of the breakout indie bands of the 00s post-Britpop bubble. Always preferring to define themselves as indefinable, the group moved fairly seamlessly from indie rock to a more dance-friendly sound between albums one and three. Since then, Bloc Party have flip-flopped between returning to their roots and pushing into new territory, with this release falling more into the former camp.
First single Traps and album opener Day Drinker, which rattle along at a head-bopping rate, are Bloc Party at their most old-school – possibly influenced by reviving their critically-acclaimed debut Silent Alarm for a series of pre-pandemic live shows – while the punchy The Girls Are Fighting reminds you of their storytelling abilities, a la earlier hit I Still Remember. Altogether, there’s brooding, brawling and bruising on Alpha Games, but the hits aren’t quite hard enough to leave a lasting impact, nor soft enough to seep under the skin.
HANNAH COLLINS
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