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It’s official. After booking a few festival appearances and announcing a US tour, Bloc Party have revealed that they do indeed have a new album on the horizon. It’s been four long years since we’ve had new material from the English indie rock outfit, but that’s going to change on August 21st, when new record Four is set to be released on Frenchkiss.
In a blog post, frontman Kele Okereke attempted to explain why it’s been so long since 2008’s Intimacy, writing “there have been babies, breakdowns, tantrums and hospitalisations but its finally here. we started making this record in NY in the winter of 2011. we didn’t want to let the world know so we told a lie that got out of hand but it made us laugh in the process, which brought us closer together.” Presumably he’s referring to the rumors swirling around in the fall of last year that the band was close to dissolution after Kele caught the rest of Bloc Party rehearsing without him. He goes into more details about the time off, you can read his full statement here. It’s worth reading.
All drama aside, it’s going to be great to have this band back around. From the sounds of it the band is back up to the angular, driving rock that they’ve built their career on – Kele’s solo exploits into electronic music don’t seem to be having too much of an influence and he’s calling it their best album yet. The reunion of the band seems prompted by the state of the world today, so I’m hoping for the dystopian romanticism of Silent Alarm and Weekend In The City to make a return. You can check out a preview video of Four below, as well as the dates for the band’s upcoming US tour. Preorder the album here.
Bloc Party Tour Dates
7/30 – Honolulu, Hawaii @ The Republik
8/3 – Los Angeles, Calif. @ Hard Festival
8/4 – Chicago, Ill. @ Lollapalooza
8/5 – Montreal, Quebec @ Osheaga Festival
8/7 – New York, N.Y. @ Terminal 5
8/8 – New York, N.Y. @ Terminal 5
8/9 – New York, N.Y. @ Terminal 5
8/11 – Las Vegas, Nev. @ The Pool at The Cosmopolitan
8/12 – San Francisco, Calif. @ Outside Lands
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