"Silent Alarm" may be a few years old, but by no means does that affect it’s value as a musical work. The debut album from Bloc Party is filled with many now famous indie gems such as "Banquet" and "Helicopter", the latter of which gained immense popularity by being featured on Guitar Hero 3.

Many people consider this album their best, as after this Bloc Party experiment in a way, moving gradually towards electronic sounds in their following albums ("A Weekend In The City" and "Intimacy"). Personally, I’ve grown attached to all of their albums. However, "Silent Alarm" does standout from the 3 in a few aspects.

Firstly, some of the guitar hooks in "Silent Alarm", such as the two aformentioned songs ("Banquet" and "Helicopter") are brilliant. Nothing else can describe them.

Secondly, Matt Tong’s drumming on this album is really, really good. I think it just sets some of the songs apart from something another band could pull off.

The album begins very strongly, but unfortunately towards the end seems to lose energy and vitality. Some of the later songs begin to drift. However "Little Thoughts" and "Two More Years" are worthy pieces to complete the album with. The drums roll away and Kele’s vocals rarely fail to evoke some emotion in lines such as:

"They say: "be brave, there’s a right way and a wrong way"
This pain won’t last for ever, this pain won’t last for ever"

Overall the album has some really great songs on it. It’s a shame it fails to stand up about two thirds of the way through, but with 16 songs there’s more than enough to keep people satisfied.

Overall score: 7/10