Review of ‘Anatomy Of A Brief Romance’, the new release from Bloc Party

There was a time when Bloc Party came to suggest a candidacy in order to become one of the great bands in the United Kingdom, placing themselves with “Silent Alarm” (Vice, 05) at the head of that new batch of British formations. Some sensations endorsed based on that more than notable (and always vindicated) continuation that was “A Weekend In The City” (Vice, 07). Sharp guitars, cutting and vertical songs, a magnetic vocalist… everything looked good for a group that then diluted specificities and stuck together in a scandalous way.

It was from a discreet third job as “Intimacy” (Atlantic, 08) when the quartet began to lose its bearings and, what is worse, its identity. A series of tumbles that now lead to “Anatomy Of A Brief Romance”an album released in full creative maturity from which, at least in the narrative section, Kele Okereke and company emerge victorious. The combo skillfully portrays the different phases through which a romantic relationship goes, from the initial euphoria to the inevitable outcome full of disappointments. The problem lies, however, in the weight of the songs themselves, no less than a total of fourteen, with those qualities that in their beginnings marked a special band almost completely evaporated, and where only pieces like “01.22.22”the single “Pigwig” either “Love Bombs” could be saved from mass burning.

The fifty minutes of “Anatomy Of A Brief Romance” They become boring quickly, in a feeling that does not improve with listening and based on a batch of compositions that pale again and again, clearly incapable of getting the group to take flight (at least convincingly) at some point. A reference that reveals a group that is now flat, lyrically solvent, but limited when it comes to injecting muscle or emotion into an inert, monochromatic and ultimately tedious album, which requires additional effort to reach its final stretch.