THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Alpha Games is Bloc Party’s first studio album since 2016’s Hymns and the first written and recorded with Justin Harris on bass and Louise Bartle on drums. It captures the spark of their live show and delivers the most exciting Bloc Party album yet.
Alpha Games, produced by Nick Launay and Adam Greenspan (Nick Cave, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Idles), sees the band returning to the raucous, high-octane sound of their earliest work in an outburst of propulsive post-punk. The album’s 12 tracks veer from the intense and confrontational (Traps, Day Drinker) to melodic and introspective (If We Get Caught, By Any Means Necessary), and marks a new and important chapter in one of music’s most important bands.
“Alpha Games was conceived on the road, playing in front of amazing crowds on our last tour and then brought to life with the fire and the frustrations of 2020,” says singer-guitarist and songwriter Kele Okereke. “We wanted to can what was happening at those massive gigs in 2019, to showcase what Louise can do, what Russell is capable of and most importantly the electricity coming off the audience. We knew that Nick and Adam were the right choice of producers to do that and the result feels like fire in a bottle.”
