Bloc Party - Mercury/Idea For A Story

It can't have been that long since A Weekend In The City but Bloc Party are already back in the studio working on their third album. Flux was a left-fielder for the group, foregoing the more polished rock sound of Weekend for a mess of electronic sounds and possibly even the dreaded autotune effect. In spite of itself (and the loss of critical darling status amongst blogs and hipsters the world over), the song is insanely catchy and warrants repeat listens. It looks like the critical backlash of the past couple of years hasn't put Bloc Party back in Silent Alarm territory either with the release of Mercury and the b-side Idea For A Story from their upcoming, as-yet untitled third album. Mercury is the more immediate of the two, evoking the same messy techno vibe of Flux. However it's also more well thought out with the horn stabs, brass and random electronic sounds used sparingly until they're piled upon each other in the songs final minute. A minor (yet interesting) note, the looping of the chorus ('Ma-me-mercury's in retrograde') and the pitching of Kele's voice might as well be a reference to Houston's chopped-n-screwed Hip-Hop scene. Idea For A Story is the better of the two songs with a beautiful electronic organ accordion and yet more 90's-rave style drums. It's obvious that Bloc Party is angling for something with this new sound. While the songs may for the moment sound kind of similar, I'll wait until the third album about passing judgment. On their own merits though, these songs are great despite what the majority of fans may want from Bloc Party.

Seriously though, where the fuck are the other members of the band? They must be feeling pretty left out right now.