It's a shame that Bloc Party aren't just buckling down and marching straight into another record, because if it's like this, we'd have something impressive on our hands.
The Nextwave Sessions delivers on the mentality of quality over quantity. The EP offers five respectable new songs from the British indie rockers.
‘The Nextwave Sessions’ EP careers wildly between moods and atmospheres, and sounds like a band happy to let go and experiment because they’re comfortable with who they are.
The Nextwave Sessions is five tracks from a band who’ve etched their mark on the UK music scene, stretching their sound whilst still occasionally snapping back to what made them so appealing eight years ago.
This is Bloc Party now, another band that might have been, settling in for the grind.
There’s a perverse thrill in hearing what is almost certainly the worst song Bloc Party could write and still be proud enough to include on a commercially available recording.
Because The Nextwave Sessions reads like a compressed transcription of the band’s history to date, the EP actually paints black its possible pleasures.
A solid sense of identity has never been their strong suit, something this batch of recordings only serves to cement as it nonchalantly flits from one mood to another over the course of 18 minutes.
The five songs here are awkward bedfellows
I listened to this shortly after finishing the bitter disappointment that was Four and... well, I'm probably more surprised that I rate it this highly than you are.
Ratchet is the debut of MC Kele, and any concerns of that being awkward are cancelled out by the pretty immense backing groove. Obscene is one of their slowest ever songs, a moody, skittering electronic number that I think succeeds even if it didn't majorly stick in my mind the first time. French Exit has verses that are like a way ... read more
"Ratchet" is an interesting half rap half alt rock song that opens this EP in quite a positive way.
"Obscene" reminds me of the trite and bland shit Bloc Party went on to do on HYMNS.
"French Exit" is kind of simple but honestly it kinda works. It is what it is I guess.
"Montreal" is fine but also kinda bland and boring and gives me massive HYMNS vibes.
And "Children of The Future" is once again, something that sounds like it would fit nicely ... read more
1 | Ratchet 3:18 | 89 |
2 | Obscene 3:44 | 34 |
3 | French Exit 2:52 | 72 |
4 | Montreal 4:39 | 40 |
5 | Children of the Future 3:07 | 64 |
6 | X-Cutioner's Song (Bonus Track) 2:01 | 46 |