Bloc Party's first album Silent Alarm was so full of memorable, intelligent indie-rock anthems that almost every track could have worked as a single. After such a jaw-dropping debut any follow-up was bound to disappoint, and A Weekend In The City left many fans feeling a little alienated; its stylistic dissimilarity from Silent Alarm felt disorientating, a little like the headache that may have resulted had Radiohead jumped straight from The Bends to Amnesiac.
Even accepting this, A Weekend In The City works well enough as a long-player. However, its individual tracks can often seem a little naked when listened to sans context. Hunting For Witches is a case in point: sandwiched between the tracks Song For Clay and Waiting For The 7.18 on the album, it works by punctuating the personal with the political. Hunting... is livid, with Kele's rage being directed towards those in society who seek to perpetuate a climate of fear: "All reasonable thought is being drowned out; By the non-stop baying, baying for blood".
Yet the single sounds strangely neutered when heard on the radio, and the clumsiness of the lyrics can be distracting: mentioning the Daily Mail by name sounds a little gauche to me. Still, while it's not Formula One Bloc Party, its still a damn sight better than most things I've listened to this week; I'll give them a 'could try harder', written in the margin.
