Ambition. Corruption. Desire. Dysfunction. Dominance and submission. Getting what you want at all costs. Burning bridges. Cutting ties. Losing sight. Playing your cards. Sleight of hand. These are just a few of the themes and energies that simmer and burst throughout Alpha Games, the sixth record from British band Bloc Party. Alpha Games has been a few years in the making. The first seeds were sown during Bloc Party's string of Silent Alarm shows back in 2018 and 2019. Alpha Games feels breathless and intense; all spiky riffs, propulsive drums and confrontational, narrative-based lyrics running rings around the listener. It is, as Justin Harris describes it, “forward thinking, with a heavy nod to the energy of the past.”To listen toAlpha Games is to go on a journey. From the sharp, visceral boldness of album opener “Day Drinker” to the sleazy, glam rock feel of “The Girls Are Fighting” to the bitter-tinged, melancholy album closer “The Peace Offering”, it's hard not to feel as though as you are being invited into a web of unsavoury characters, regretful moments, dark and sinister feelings and actions. There are sexy moments, there are tender moments, but mostly this is, as Louise Bartle describes it, an “angry”album –or at least cold, cutting. “With this album I was very conscious about taking the listener on a journey,” adds Kele Okereke. “That's why the first and last song are so important. They bookend the characters’ state of mind.”After almost two decades, six albums, endless world tours and a variety of solo projects along the way, Bloc Party are a different band to the one which burst onto the indie scene back in the early 2000s. It's an evolution and growth that seeps into every corner of Alpha Games.“I don't feel that I'd have been able to write songs like this earlier on in my career because all of the characters seem to revel in their dysfunction,” Kele says, “whereas in the past I would have tried to resolve everything or put a rosy tint on things. But I think it was important in this record to see all of the ugliness, the worst things that we do to each other in the name of ambition.”Bloc Party might not be looking to the past, but they're also not looking ahead too much either. Alpha Games is a product of right here, right now. “I think this might be the most evolved Bloc Party record yet,” says Justin.
