Bloc Party is an indie rock band from England, currently made up of Kele Okereke(lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals), and Louise Bartle (drums, percussion).
Silent Alarm was their first full-feature album released in 2005 and featured all original members, with Gordon Moakes on bass and Matt Tong on drums. Musically and lyrically this is one of my favorite albums of all time and I decided to put the metaphorical pen to the paper and elaborate on what it means to me.
1. Like Eating Glass
The opening track to the album kicks off with some quick tremolo-style guitar picking along with some warming synths that lead into the drum section to create an accessible melody. This guides the track’s momentum and fits the lyrical content of the song. Tong’s drumming on this entire album is an absolute masterclass in rhythm- always driving, dynamic, and the general tempo of most tracks makes foot-tapping and maybe even dancing nearly inevitable, depending on the mood of the listener. Apologies in advance if I find myself unable to restrain from continually praising her work.
The band does an incredible job of keeping music dynamic, to me I feel this the strongest in how the guitars usually show some restraint during the verses, allowing the bass and drums to really hold the groove, which further solidifies Bloc Party’s rare ability to straddle indie rock and live dance music. The verse melodies here have a warm quality supported through the guitar chords and there are some more electronically-rooted arpeggios about 2/3s of the way thru the opener that add some energy and a sense of urgency. Lyrically the song focuses on unrequited love, I get a sense of the emotions still being fresh and visceral as the chorus compares the feeling of doubt and instability to ‘drinking poison and eating glass’. The recurring verse ‘it’s so cold in this house…’ further evokes a melancholy sentiment of loneliness that’s juxtaposed by Kele’s earnest vocal qualities.
‘I can’t eat, I can’t sleep
I can’t sleep, I can’t dream
An aversion to light
Got a fear of the ocean…’
I found this engaging as it makes a jump from describing physical experience that may be common during periods of stress or trauma in life, but then adds in the mention of more primal fears, as if the present feeling of doubt and loneliness has transcended into every area of day-to-day life, where even primitive aspects of the physical world create fear and aversion.
The final verse is also interesting, describing the feelings of limited sight and using the imagery of physically stumbling into objects as a way to communicate a feeling of confusion and aimlessness. Kele adds a sense of joint accountability in what could have contributed to the lack of reciprocated love in the relationship he’s referencing.
2. Helicopter
One of Silent Alarm’s standout singles, this track combines a noodling guitar riff playing off two different octaves laid down simultaneously by the lead and rhythm guitarists, and the drums hold an enthusiastic, aggressive, punk-esque type of driving beat through the song. In addition to this song seeing commercial success, it was also a fun ripper to play on one of the later versions of Guitar hero :p I have always enjoyed Kele’s lyricism and this is a perfect example of his unique ability to blend clever metaphors and analogies while interspersing some more abstract open-ended phrases throughout. To provide a bit of context, Kele is an English musician and there are some interesting interpretations on Genius on some of the metaphors that may be intended as reflections/comparisons of American vs English culture.
Stop being so American
There’s a time and there’s a place
So James Dean, so blue jeans
Gonna save the world, he’s gonna…
A later verse references the opposite…
Why can’t you be more European?
Bastard child of guilt and shame
Bury your head in the sand
I’m thinking six, six, six, I’m thinking six
Without presupposing ideas about his identity, I overall enjoy the juxtaposition and imagery of both American and European culture and it piqued my curiously on how he felt writing this as a UK-born black man, as the indie-rock scene has historically been dominated by white males. Kele stated that he wrote the song about himself, so the repetition of ‘are you hoping for a miracle?’ begins to take on a sense of conscious desperation or futility that he is discontent with his current situation and wants things to change, but is also aware that perhaps the outcomes he is desiring are unrealistic or unattainable. The final chorus ends with a second layer to the chorus as this final bit is repeated until the song runs out…
Are you hoping for a miracle? (It’s not enough)…
3. Positive Tension
Based on the imagery and themes that comprise other songs on this album, I initially thought this song title was a relatively overt play off sexual tension, but interestingly enough this is a track where Kele himself shed some light on his intended meaning of the song. I’ll dive in a bit though before getting to his own musings. The track starts off again with an excellent interplay between Tong holding a brooding cadence on the drums and Moakes laying down a quick syncopated bass line that gives a bit of a dance-y vibe to the song. The verses also include some warm floating synth lines that add an air
An interesting point to note in this song is that the perspective from each verse shifts from male to female before referencing a larger anonymous crowd as ‘they’.
He said, “You’re just as boring as everyone else
When you tut and you moan and you squeal and you squelch”
He said that you’re just as boring as everyone else
Nothing ever happens
Things replace things
Days replace days
Things replace things
She said, “I’m gonna use my teeth and my claws”
She said, “I’m gonna use my teeth and my claws”
She said, “I’m gonna use my teeth and my breasts
I’m gonna make it happen”
She said…
and ultimately closing with…
They go, they say
They go, they say
They go
Why’d you have to get so hysterical?
Why’d you have to get so hysterical?
Why’d you have to get so hysterical?
Why’d you have to get so hysterical?
Why’d you have to get so hysterical?
(Success, success, success is over)
Why’d you have to get so hysterical?
(Success, success, success is over)
Why’d you have to get so hysterical?
(Success, success, success is over)
Why’d you have to get, so fucking useless?
There’s a lot up for interpretation here but I was first getting some digs at either friends or artists who ‘sold out’, the combination of hysteria and chasing success with rabid ambition also creates a sentiment of those who live their live for others. According to Kele he wrote the song about the vapid obsession with pop culture, and the boredom and staleness that comes along with both the sell-out pop stars and the fans that blindly follow them (my words regarding the fans 😉
The song’s overall appeal and danceability is further enhanced by the surging rhythms near the end where the guitars and drums turn into a frenzied attack and leads into the closing guitar solo and outro.
Play it cool, boy
Play it cool, boy
Play it cool, boy
Play it cool, boy
Play it cool…
4. Banquet
A large part of this album’s universal success can arguably be attributed to the strength of the opening four tracks, and ‘Banquet’ is another standout track that combines diverse instrumental arrangements with more passionate and free-spirited lyrics about love, sex, and intimacy.
Damn, what a fascinating sentiment to touch on here. The dynamic of seeing and loving qualities in others when they have difficulties seeing it in themselves…and for those have experienced it, the pull to dive even deeper, to understand in a more profound sense, when a lover puts up a wall to connecting with their own emotional/physical selves. Waiting on people to ‘change’ is never a good position to be in, as this almost always points to something left unfulfilled between two people, or a trait that needs to be present but that has not matured yet…yet in contrast when I feel connection and start to pick up on some nuances in an individual that they keep buried somewhere beneath the surface, it becomes a bit of a tantalizing experience to let these nuances and mysteries unveil themselves over time…Some people want instant accessibility and others are only fueled through mystery and depth…but it takes a lot of honesty to sense if you’re waiting on someone to change, or if you’re just waiting for more to be revealed and everything that’s been presented is already intriguing.
Kele continues this insightful sentiment in the chorus…
He references his own sense of actualization with the intention of only ‘tasting’ his lover, which can clearly be interpreted in the desire for physical exploration and lust, but there is a great double entendre here, as it also communicates the desire to only take from his partner/lover in bits and pieces without damaging their being. Relationally I connect this to the perpetual dance required between partners to learn and share with each other, without overshadowing or eliminating the intricacies of their respective personalities/social lives/goals/hopes/dreams…and what a challenging beautiful dance this can be at times.
From the second verse I really get a strong sense of the radical lust and reckless passion felt at the peak of attraction, where the absence of logic and almost intentional ignorance becomes an ecstatic thrill. Your brain is firing but your heart (and hormones) are overriding it on full blast…Any individual’s definition of ‘love’ is likely to be fluid at points in their life, shaped both by past and present relationships, but there is a connective quality to embracing the care-free qualities that come with infatuation. Especially the last bit of the second verse:
And we don’t read the papers, we don’t read the news
Heaven’s never enough, we will never be fooled
What a great combination of imagery and analogy- current/external events (reading the news) can seem meaningless in the peak of attraction/love/lust, and even Heaven as a metaphor seems lacking compared to the passion that they’re currently experiencing.(Somewhat amusing aside that I feel obligated to point out- I’m most certainly not stating that attraction = love = lust…just that the distinction can be confusing in early stages and from a connective point of view with the listener, any of the above fit the vibe and evocation of the lyrics in my mind. Attraction and lust may be close cousins and both are usually components of love but do not touch on the complexity and depth of ‘love’…)
And finally the outro to the song- while some tracks on the album may necessitate some higher levels of interpretation and inference, this song speaks clearly:
The passion and intensity described throughout the song is driven home by Kele stating ‘I’m on fire’ in repetition here- there’s another totally not-subtle double entendre in the second line, as that feeling of enraptured ecstasy is precipitated by both the physical presence/arrival of his lover and each time his partner orgasms.
The follow up to this is intriguing, as it’s not clear if Kele is frustrated by the intensity of it all and wants her to end it, or if she enjoys the element of power in her ability to control and influence his arousal.
5. Blue Light
The fifth track on the album marks a departure from the high energy carrying the first several tracks, with gentle guitar chords and crooning lyrics setting the vibe straight away. Lyrically this song also takes a turn from some of the more fun and lusty language shown in the previous tracks and instead Blue Light is more of an exploratory musing on love and intimacy.
I want to make a point to emphasize this since it proves Kele’s ability to communicate the diverse spectrum of sentiments felt in life, lust, love, and loss- it creates a fascinating dynamic where at first you may not find yourself connecting with a particular lyric, something else later on will catch your curiosity and get you thinking, and before you know it you can now connect to some imagery or metaphor that was previously meaningless. The energy builds in this track after the half way point but then fades away in a gentle outro. For those wanting to party, not to worry- the slower pace quickly resumes back to their dancefloor tempo 😉
The opening verse alludes to the persistent feeling of a partner or loved one left in memories, and the certain comfort that it provides, along with the past experiences that the unique feeling brings to mind. I also find this points to a very unique dynamic, in that that jealousy is the natural reaction to distance or confusion a relationship that is only connective through physical intimacy or lust, but in the same scenario there is a quality of depth to the melancholy felt in a relationship that combines physical and emotional intimacy.
The outro repeats ‘you are the bluest light’ until the song fades out, and this could refer to the qualities associated with feeling ‘blue’, or just evoking memories of the radiance of their blue eyes.
6. She’s Hearing Voices
This song hops back over to a more lively side of playing and the lyrics create a funky feel that could definitely carry this track in a dingy rock and roll bar or dance club. Again, Tong just rips the drums on this one and Moakes keeps a furious pace while holding the bass line together. Their grooves really hold it down all the way until Lissack shreds a fun little jammer of a guitar solo near the end, complete with some squealing fuzz and wah FX added on top of his already-well-developed tone.
The lyrics paint a picture of an unstable, highly erratic woman, most likely an ex
She’s hearing voices, call her
She’s hearing voices, warn her
She just can’t sleep in her bed
She just can’t sleep
She’s falling down the stairs
She’s tearing out her hair
She’s screaming my name in the night
To keep her warm
The chorus is a just chant repeating ‘red pill! blue pill!’ which could reference the famous scene in the Matrix, where Neo is confronted with the choice of whether he wants to break free from the Matrix and experience reality raw and unfiltered. One pill will lead to the same comfortable life, the other, and you’ll never be the same. So in this sense the character addressed in the song may be struggling from his perspective to confront reality but instead may choose to keep things complacent and suppressed, (further supported by the last line of the chorus referencing ‘milk of amnesia‘).
The subject matter of the song is solidified in the final verse, further describing a woman who is hurt, unstable, and hateful. And the final line (‘Tearing down posters, I was never, never alive‘) brings to mind a scene that I feel like is common in a bunch of movies where an enraged couple is arguing and one starts tearing things off the wall. Not sure why this image is so clear in my mind….hahaha. Anyway…yeah, this song definitely seems like it’s about an ex. Walking on eggshells is definitely a connective phrase for anyone who’s been through a rough breakup as neither party really knows what’s up and the old intimacy that may have been shared is replaced by awkwardness and tense moments together.
She’s scared of the blacks and she’s scared of the Jews
She is walking around, she is yesterday’s news
And she calls out my name in the dead of the night
She is leaving my room, she is crying on her side
Walking on eggshells, walking on glass
Burnt by the mirror, burnt by the light
Feeling rejection, I’ll burn down your house
Tearing down posters, I was never, never alive
‘
7. This Modern Love
Ahhh have I been waiting to go in on this one…a masterpiece. The song opens with some gentle hi-hat patters setting the rhythm for an emotive guitar riff that just has some beautiful melodies within it, not quite a full arpeggio but the exact selection of tones fit the vibe of the song perfectly. Kele really shines through with some wildly descriptive and profound lyrics, again showing a balance between raw, easily digestible phrases and more complex analogies.
To be lost in the forest, to be cut adrift
You’ve been trying to reach me, you bought me a book
To be lost in the forest, to be caught adrift
I’ve been paid, I’ve been paid
To be lost in the forest, to be cut adrift
You’ve been trying to reach me, you bought me a book
To be lost in the forest, to be caught adrift
I’ve been paid, I’ve been weighed, I’ve been
I love the combination of images, comparing & contrasting the experiences of being lost in a forest and being set free into the open ocean…both incredibly complex and interesting experiences in themselves. I’ve always found an extremely strong connection to symbolism and meaning in the natural world, stemming back to years and years watching the Animal Planet and Discovery Channel growing up, playing with bugs, reading books, keeping some lizards, and spending twelve summers in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Both experiences in nature that Kele references share some similarities- I would be faced with the unknown, a true sense of not knowing- where I’m going, how to get out, whether I even want to get out…getting lost in a forest or at sea could become one of my life highlight as long as I eventually get out of the woods or returned to land alive! The juxtaposition of being lost in some vast void while someone is looking for you evokes a different emotion though-one that feels like more of a longing and loving vibe, or it could be leaning more towards concern and sadness. As yet another take, there’s also a sense of determination and inspiration that is felt between two people who are pursuing each other in some mysterious dance of flirting or learning or courtship.
Don’t get offended if I seem absent-minded
Just keep telling me facts and keep making me smile and
Don’t get offended if I seem absent minded
I get tongue-tied
Baby, you’ve got to be more discerning
I’ve never known what’s good for me
Baby, you’ve got to be more demanding
I will be yours
Kele goes into the intimate and gentle side of attraction here, perhaps referencing what some would call the puppy dog or honeymoon phase of a relationship, but I despise both of those terms so I’ll come up with better…the absent-mindedness makes me thing of the sense of awe or overwhelming sensory input felt when trying to stay present in conversation when you’re really just trying to take in 100 different things about the person in front of you. This is mimicked in the reference to feeling tongue-tied, as it’s a known universal experience to occasionally have amusing/embarrassing breaks in the communication between our brains and mouths when we’re taking in a multitude of things about someone we’re stoked about. The line ‘Baby, you’ve got to be more discerning‘ makes me thing of feeling bashful or almost undeserving when someone that you’re fantasizing about reciprocates initial interest.
The bridge is just six words, but damn do I just love the duality of the simplicity and depth it carries:
I’ll pay for you, any time
I’ll pay for you, any time…
This once more evokes the feeling of reckless abandon that is felt in passion and in love- the phrase could simply reference paying for activities/dates etc when they’re together, but the vagueness of it allows the listener to extend it as if the presence of his lover is so desired/valued that he would pay for it, without a second thought about it. Hahahaha…I’ve felt this before and I love the feeling, which is also terrible. Something along the lines of “I’ll go broke if this keeps up and I’m not sure what the point is, but right now, it feels perfect’…ahhh the ebbs and flows of life and love. It’s a cautious yet scintillating feeling to sense your own logic and reason being drowned out by…hormones…hahaha.
And you told me you wanted to eat up my sadness
Well jump on, enjoy, you can gorge away
And you told me you wanted to eat up my sadness
Jump right
The third verse immediately touches on another complex dynamic that is seemingly becoming more common in ‘modern love’, where one partner starts relying on or using the other partner to serve as a blanket distraction for their own struggles, essentially turning the relationship away from independence and growth and instead creating elements of co-dependence and passivity. I think the way Kele juxtaposes the first two couplets is both fascinating and important, as there’s a duality to this dynamic in relationships. Partners do not equate to therapists, and if one individual has work to do (we all do, but specifically work that is necessary before entering and contributing towards a healthy relationship) their partner/lover cannot replace the work.
There’s just no instruction manual for developing our own perspectives on what we want and don’t want in relationships. But in the same vein, there are certainly individuals who feel that their role is most strongly fulfilled by taking on the role of a ‘fixer’ or essentially dedicating their time and energy to dealing with the problems their partner is experiencing/facing, and this simultaneously enables the partner to dive deeper into their own hole of self-pity and inaction.
Baby, you’ve got to be more discerning
I’ve never known what’s good for me and
Baby, you’ve got to be more demanding
Jump left
What are you holding out for?
What’s always in the way?
Why so damn absent-minded?
Why so scared of romance?
If I really read into the flow of the lyrics in this song I sense an increase in urgency between the opening verse and the third verse, which I love as it creates yet another profoundly understandable connection (hah, at least to me) where open-minded curiosity and more exploratory attraction towards an individual can shift over time to more existential doubt and even hyper-analysis if you/I aren’t ‘getting what we expected’ from the other person. In my opinion this is fully preventable though- if I engage with an individual with the sole purpose of hoping that my engagement with that person leads to something specific (immediate or in the near future) my entire relationship with that individual is now coming through the lens of my own expectations or desires.
And if one person’s expectations (which in most early phases of relationships, seem to be left unspoken) are not met, then the other person is causing disappointment or distance at no fault of their own. They didn’t know what you were hoping for any maybe would have provided some more meaningful insights if you shared it with them. That being said, yeah…the mystery of how someone’s past experiences/relationships/loyalties/betrayals influence their present vibe is exactly that- a mystery, and sometimes it can be brutal if you task yourself with answering all of those unanswerable questions on your own. Maybe the other person can shed some insight if you’re willing to have a dialogue, but you certainly aren’t going to manifest the answers on your own and if you think you do without specific input from the other person, realize those are just assumptions and you’re almost guaranteed to be wrong.
And then if you engage with someone while wanting a specific outcome, you’re missing out on the exact present moment, when this person is already in your presence, gifting you with their time. I had a really interesting conversation recently with a new acquaintance where we ended up reflecting on the concept of ‘friend-zoning’. In my experience this term got it’s notoriously disappointing connotation from early on, middle school/high school years where many relationships were merely a form of displaying/achieving social status, and if a dude got ‘friend-zoned’ he’d proceed to be mocked by his friends for having bad game, or not trying hard enough, or something else along those lines. Hah, it is possible to straight up have bad game. If that’s the case, I’m sorry-take good care of yourself!
But on a more serious note- the second point- ‘not trying hard enough’. There’s a huge difference between the subtle hinting that comes with fun healthy flirting versus literally trying to persuade someone to spend time with you/have sex with you, etc. If you ever feel like you need to forcibly persuade someone to hook up with you, stop. Wtf? For real, think of how off the mark you already are if you’re literally getting nothing reciprocated and beyond that, are actively being told that they’re disinterested.
This modern love, breaks me
This modern love, wastes me…
And in ‘adult’ relationships, what’s the concern over someone wanting you in their life but not wanting to have sex with you or share physical intimacy (at this point in time)? We all need good friends, and there’s more than enough ways to find someone who wants to have sex with you nowadays, all without dragging someone else’s well-being through the dirt…Going through life with an overall enthusiasm for human connection will provide countless more opportunities for joy and interesting experiences than if you navigate life while seeing people as means to an end, and beyond that, most human relationships are fluid anyway. Enjoy every moment, stay curious, and who knows, most dynamics have varying degrees of fluidity and being ‘friend-zoned’ today doesn’t mean that label will hold in a few weeks, or a few months, or a few years. Keep living life, stay present, don’t wait around since you can’t control the other person, and just savor each moment. For what it’s worth, how many times you hear someone say they married their best friend? It seems to be fairly common…
And then the ending- the curious explorations, the dance of sensing each other out, the frustration with not understanding the other person’s perspectives on life and love, are pushed aside for some earnest, pure sentiments here. As if to say, ‘Forget the analysis, let’s just stay wrapped up in each other for now…’
Have we all felt this way at some point? I don’t know, but it would be cool to know if so.
…and with that, I conclude my analysis of the first half of the album. Maybe I’ll do the second half, maybe cover another album entirely. But this was fun, easy to write, and if no one reads it that’s totally cool since it felt great for me to put these words on (digital) paper :p
(Apparently I’m not the only one that found this song to be quite thought-provoking and digestible, there are a variety of entire sub-reddits devoted just to this song)
Thoughts and Musings 