Bloc Party - Hymns

Bloc Party
Hymns
2016
Spotify

The Bloc Party faithful have been waiting for this fifth studio album for awhile now. Questions swirled what direction the record would take after a couple personnel changes. The answer is finally here in the form of Hymns which for the most part sounds more like a Kele album than it does Bloc Party. The pace for the first half of the album is quite slow despite the first track " The Love Within". You are left really missing that energy and frenzy that populated those early records. If the point of Hymns was to create an album that reflected spiritual belief in an indie rock kind of way then you can say it is moderately successful, but this record seems to be trying to fill a need that just is not there. The spiritual element of the album seems to be so forced and inorganic falling somewhere between a praise song and pop. By the time you reach "Different Drugs", one of the better slow songs on the record, you are almost exhausted by the crawling pace. Kele never just gets to the point and lets loose, instead it is all wrapped up in metaphor and overblown rock.

The best part of Bloc Party was always their frustration. you could feel their angst seeping through their records and the confusion at the direction modern life was taking. That just flat out is not on Hymns and it really suffers because of it. Those times when you dreaded a Bloc Party song ending are replaced with begging for the next track. "Into the Earth" is reminiscent of Cody Chestnut and the whole Neo-Soul movement, but it is almost 12 years to late and just not that great. This record is more of a soothing hand on your back than it is a fist in your face which really is not what we are looking for from Bloc Party. This album is not going to spoil the rich catalog of music we have from Bloc Party but is another step in the wrong direction for a band that as of late seems to be making them more and more frequently. Skip this record and instead go listen to A Weekend in the City again you'll thank yourself for it.

5.3 out of 10