SHIFTING from live performance to quality album production is a challenge some bands meet better than others.
And�it is something Bloc Party has struggled with on two previous efforts.
But this third offering - the second album in 18 months - highlights that the London four-piece may yet produce an album that matches their on-stage reputation.
Intimacy is a vast improvement on previous efforts and, while it may not be the most exciting album of Bloc Party's relatively short career, the ground covered should pay off in a big way.
Their last album, A Weekend in The City, signalled that they refuse to be typecast.
The tracks on Intimacy are so diversely eclectic it seems they may have done just enough to keep the critics at bay.
While the shining moments of past albums remain, there is more electronica this time (which has always seemed a natural progression) and it is the band's successful journey into unexplored musical territory and greater lyrical depth than past efforts that make this album sing.
There is a downside, namely lauded single Mercury. With its repetitive lyrics it does not become catchy, just plain annoying.
Lead singer Kele Obereke clearly dubbed this a "break-up" album and despite the melancholy material dealt with track to track, Obereke emotes a personal touch in a fashion unexpected of someone surrounded by electronic melodies and robotic rhythms.
While Halo provides the guitar-heavy rock style Bloc Party once stood for, the delicate Signs and Biko achieve the album's titular mood and Trojan Horse simply makes you want to dance.
Then there is Better Than Heaven, which stands apart and signals all that the group have tried to do with their previous two albums - to seamlessly combine their vast array of directional desires.
They swoon, they rock and they ponder, all the while experimenting with the unorthodox mix of grimy guitars, heavy beats, electro rhythms, string sections and zany synth riffs.
Only weeks ago the group announced they would be unlikely to release this album until very late this year, but with three days' notice made the album available for download on their website.
For everything it is, and memorable it isn't, you can't help, but wonder how the album would have unfolded if given another few months' treatment. There is always next time, though.
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