Artist: Bloc Party
Album: Silent Alarm Remixed
Label: Vice
Tracks: 14
Reviewed By: Chaz
One of my favorite releases of this year was Bloc Party - Silent Alarm. It probably won’t make my top ten but it’s up there. I think it’s a very solid album. They took a lot of great influences and some of my favorite bands (joy division, the cure) and made a very secure and successful album for a very young group. I wouldn’t call it great. Since I wouldn’t call it great, why would you ever make a remix album of it. Outside of trying to suck and milk more money out of fans, I can’t really come up with an answer. Maybe they have a small contract with Vice Records and they wanted to get out of it so they released another album but I doubt that is what it’s about. And quit honestly, if you are going to make a remix of a song, let alone an album, make it better than or equal to the previous effort, please!

They butchered some of my favorite songs off of the original album. Don’t do that. They took their very solid sound and turned it into a mix of the best of The Thompson Twins, the very worst of The Cure and very gay version of Prodigy. I had to listen to the original a number of times afterwards to remind myself that they are still a good band but they made a very bad decision. It seems very arrogant and immature.