Bloc Party

Bloc Party’s second album - A Weekend In The City

The idea behind Bloc Party’s second album – “A Weekend in the City” – started to take shape during their 2005 tour when they were supporting their debut album – “Silent Alarm”.

Okereke wrote most of the songs during that year and in the first months of 2006 using a concept he called “Urbanite Relaxation” in order to expand on the general themes of life and leisure in the British metropolis.

Their choice of producer for this second album was Garret “Jacknife” Lee based on the relationship that formed between them while recording the demo song “I Still Remember” which would later appear on “A Weekend in the City”. The band was looking for a producer that would help them craft a complete record and who would help them portray their disillusionment with the evolution of contemporary guitar music.

The studio sessions for this album were heavy with varied kinds of sound experimentation. The band members first experimented with their individual instruments and sound arrangements and then went into the main recording room where an ad-hoc booth was built around the back part of the drum kit in order to reduce any sonic interference and sometimes a roof was used in order to isolate a pure drum sound. The miking scheme and the types of microphones used apparently were the most important parts during this period, because they had a clear idea of how the album should sound.

The album is built mostly around a mix of distorted and layered guitars with additions of electronic elements and multilayered vocals. This album wasn’t as acclaimed critically as their first one the response to their this new approach of sound being rather mixed but positive in general, the album getting a rating of 65% on Metacritic based on thirty critical reviews.