Second album by Bloc Party, and almost the most recent release listened to so far. Like their first album, this is essentially a slightly awkward sounding mix of spiky guitars, fast drums, and studio effects, though the studio effects are up a little on this one, and the lyrics are a little angrier and more angsty.'Song For Clay' starts quietly with keyboard chords and falsetto vocals before launching into a relentless drum beat and a selection of layered guitars and angry vocal harmonies. 'Hunting For Witches' starts with a fantastic sound collage of voices before turning into an angry sounding rant about alienation and racial exlusion. It's fast, crunchy, and generally brilliant. 'Waiting For The 7:18' pretends to be quiet and gentle at the beginning, but guess what - it soon becomes loud, and fast, and a bit angr... I may have said this already.
And so it goes on. Only 'On', 'Kreuzberg' and the closer 'SRXT' lower the tempo, and even then, only just, and they're still pretty intense. 'I Still Remember' is the only song on the album that isn't hard work. But despite all this, 'A Weekend In The City' is still a really good album. Demanding, even exhausting, but worth the effort, and I'm sure that's how it was meant to be. I reaching out from standard guitar-band-land and embracing more experimental sounds, they created something very successful.
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