Been thinking little thoughts about this single
Written: Feb 20 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Little Thoughts is fun, Tulips is pleasant enough
Cons: Fairly unspectacular single release
The Bottom Line: While consistently solid as any Bloc Party release, this is one for completists only.
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| flash-hammer's Full Review: Little Thoughts [Single] by Bloc Party |
In this day and age, Double A-Side singles seem to be a rarity, with few rock acts even seeming to take the singles charts seriously, let alone put extra work into a song to match whatever cut they have chosen from their album to try and garner them some airplay. South London Indie sensations Bloc Party seem to be intent on bucking this trend, having released 3 non-album Singles already in their relatively short career, with 2 of them appearing on this pre-Silent Alarm single in 2004.
While Tulips saw a release as a single in itself Stateside, in the UK it was partnered with Little Thoughts for release, and while it didn’t exactly set the charts alight, it played it’s part in the build-up buzz of the group’s debut album/
Things begin with Little Thoughts, a fairly standard little rocker that doesn’t really push the boundaries of the ‘New New Wave’ classification the band are often shoehorned into, yet at the same time it’s still hard not to enjoy it. Starting with one guitar shooting spiky riffs out quietly, before Matt Tong’s drums come in to establish the beat and the other guitar and bass kick the song into full life. It’s then singer/guitarist Kele Okereke’s vocals come in, with him adopting an unusually sedate vocal tone during the verses, but bringing out more emotion as the chorus goes on, and at one point refrains “if it’s cause my age then you’re a coward“ in his now trademark whelp, only with an inkling of defiance as the lyrics suggest. Arguably the highlight is the song’s chorus where Okereke’s cries of “I’ll go back/if you ask me“ are echoed back to him by the deeper voices of guitarist Russell Lissack and bassist Gordon Moakes.
Little Thoughts is a fairly solid and enjoyable little slice of modern indie-rock, far from the band’s best single, yet still head and shoulders above the majority of the group’s peers’ best songs. Sadly the songs it’s accompanied by aren’t quite as effective. Tulips is based around a Tong drumbeat while Lissack noodles his guitar all over it as Kele delivers spoken word vocals in this slightly floaty, but still effective ballad. Where it falls down is it’s role as a single…this was never going to be picked up for Radio play, it’s far too laid back.
To this day, Bloc Party have an unfortunate habit of not actually recording proper B-sides, and instead giving the fans loyal enough to actually track down their singles Remixes of album tracks, a fact made all the more irritating given that Little Thoughts was backed by a fantastic little rocker called Skeleton for it’s Japanese release as a single, a song never released over here, and this release didn’t buck the trend. We’re treated to Banquet (Phones Disco Edit) here, and despite starting off different, putting even more emphasis on a sped-up drum-beat, with additional handclaps, until the main riff comes in, which disappears when the vocals emerge, come the chorus the only difference between this and the regular Banquet is the addition of some synth bleeps, to give it that ‘Disco’ feel I guess. It’s not bad at all, but I tend to adopt the view that the band should have released Silent Alam: Remixed and penned some proper b-sides for the singles.
With all that said, where do I stand on Little Thoughts/Tulips? It’s non-essential really, unless you really, really want to hear Tulips and can’t find it’s US single. Little Thoughts was included as a bonus track on the American release of the album, and on the UK Special DVD edition, and the Banquet remix is easily found, in a more suitable context on Silent Alarm: Remixed. Fans will probably want it for collection-sake, and if you were looking at getting into the band it’s a decent enough place to start, however, you can pick up the debut album for less than a fiver these days, so it’s probably better to go there first.
Recommended:
Yes
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flash-hammer
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