Four
There were four albums in 2012 that for me were well ahead of the rest when I came to preparing this list; four albums that I knew were my four favourite albums of the year without even needing to think about it. My fourth favourite of them was the aptly named Four. Another great showing from the excellent Bloc Party. Four is, to an extent, a return to the rock sound that I first fell in love with on Silent Alarm in 2005. Actually, though, Four is a heavier animal: the spikey indie guitar is here replaced, at least sporadically, by riffs. And Bloc Party can really rock. My absolute favourite track – and one of my favourites by anyone this year – is the crunching ‘Kettling’. I remember at the time that the reviewer in NME hated that song. The reviewer at NME is an idiot. Utterly awesome. Elsewhere, highlights include the pitter-patter of the lovely ‘Day Four’, which is as sweet as ‘Kettling’ is sour, and the violently schizophrenic ‘3x3’, which gives the impression that the whole band are in pain. Another superb Bloc Party record, then. And while it’s not as consistent as Intimacy or as good as Silent Alarm, it’s still a significant cut above the stuff produced by Bloc Party’s peers. A most welcome return.