Dryvetyme Onlyne

Bloc Party
A Weekend in the City
Vice
Rating: 8.1

Sports aficionados, being the stereotypical macho & perpetually optimistic fans that they are, have few real fears, but those they do have are large and are backed by a wealth of tragic, not-easily-forgotten historical antecedents. And with the possible exception of a highly productive fan favorite leaving the team due to free agency, nothing scares the daylights out of fans more than a sophomore slump. For those folks who don’t quite understand the meaning of that term, a sophomore slump occurs when a player has an outstanding first year, performing well beyond the means and abilities of the average rookie. There’s simply nothing more frightening than watching the future of your preferred sports franchise have a great year and then stink it up in subsequent years. Those situations are always very painful to live through, since they suck the life right out of you.

Music fans have the same trepidation in regards to their new favorites. No one likes to have their preferred “It” band release a sub par album after a debut that showed so much promise and was so much more than people expected. Granted, in this day and age, what with MySpace, YouTube, & similar organic, yet over hyped forums, it’s easy to blur the line between the current flavor of the week and a group with real talent and artistic ability. It takes a disciplined music listener to know who’s worth something and who might just be a flash in the pan. Nevertheless, when faced with the imminent release of a hot band’s second album, I’ve known many a hipster go into convolutions with terror.

And there has rarely been a period where a deluge of anticipated sophomore records everywhere has tested the ears of critics and fans as they have been from Fall 2006 to Spring 2007. From the release of Sam’s Town by The Killers to Some Loud Thunder from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah to The Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, the indie rock nation has been tortured with determining whether to believe the hype, bless the effort unabashedly, or jump off the bandwagon as soon as possible. Thus, the release of A Weekend in the City by the hyperkinetic and ridiculously catchy Bloc Party is at the mercy of this same sense of apprehension. But allow me to allay your fears – this album is no sophomore slump, not by any stretch of the imagination. Continue reading “Bloc Party — A Weekend in the City”