Bloc Party: A Weekend in the City (green vinyl) [PIAS]

Why you'll love it

This [pias] reissue comes on dark green vinyl, pressed in the EU. The album reached No. 2 in the UK and Ireland, entered the Billboard 200 at No. 12, and The Guardian put it in its 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die.

This edition

• Green vinyl
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

Bloc Party wrote much of A Weekend in the City on the road in 2005, touring the hugely acclaimed Silent Alarm around the world. Every time they came home to London, Kele Okereke noticed how little it had changed, and he built a concept he called "Urbanite Relaxation" around city life and leisure, sketching lyrics on a MiniDisc player at around 30 soundchecks.

They took the songs to Grouse Lodge Studios in Westmeath, Ireland, in mid-2006 with producer Jacknife Lee, fresh from work with U2 and Snow Patrol. The brief was to get away from the standard guitar-band set-up: processed electronic beats, studio computer trickery and a string sextet all made it in, without losing the jerky energy of the debut. "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)" opens big, "Hunting for Witches" takes aim at media moral panic, "The Prayer" stomps, "Waiting for the 7:18" captures the commuter grind, and "I Still Remember" is one of the loveliest things they ever wrote.

It was reissued later in 2007 with the single "Flux" added as a bonus. Okereke wrote a whole album about London while mostly being somewhere else, which, as any homesick Torontonian on tour will tell you, is how the best city songs get written.

Also at Kops: more Bloc Party on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Wichita / [PIAS] (cat# PIASC1092LPX), a reissue of the 2007 album.