Approaching like a descending fleet of fighter jets intent on decimating futile eardrums, Like Eating Glass begins the most exciting rock album of the year so far. By the time the song's soaring chorus becomes a stripped-down shouting session, Bloc Party needs do no more to earn its place in the post-millennial canon.
But that doesn't stop the band from turning in a dozen more killer tracks on its debut, Silent Alarm.
The record runs the gamut from pulse-pounding rock (Helicopter
Luno) to dreamy space-pop (Blue Light So Here We Are) with plenty of enthralling stops between. The South London quartet is the next Franz Ferdinand -a band that actually deserves to be showered with hype from the British press.
