Intimacy (2008)

Bloc Party have proved they can throw out a scalpel-drawn guitar line with the best of the aughts' new-wave revivalists, but what felt special about their 2005 debut, Silent Alarm, was the vulnerability and warmth they injected into a cold-blooded genre. Despite their third album's title, however, they largely focus here on frantic postpunk aggression that's not necessarily bad, it just isn't what they do best. Listeners of Intimacy should steer, instead, toward the lovely, nuanced likes of ''Biko'' (not a Peter Gabriel cover) and ''Ion Square.'' B
Download This: Listen to a clip of ''Ion Square'' on imeem.com