Bloc Party – Hymns

It's hard to know where to start with the 2015 version of Bloc Party. A far cry from the band that crafted one of this generation's finest debut records in Silent Alarm, they're consistently – and often unfavourably – associated with the period of time when they sat at the forefront of the UK indie scene. Whether that's fair or not is perhaps a conversation for another time, but whichever way you choose to explore and consume their fifth outing, it seems that something is amiss.

Lead track The Love Within opens the record and remains a bizarre mess; Kele Okereke's distinct vocal parting for a mostly one-note synth line that causes a genuine flinch. All is perhaps not lost: Fortress is a somewhat pretty, minimal electro ballad while Different Drugs speaks for the entire record; flirting with a series of ideas before simply fading out of sight and mind. We expected so much more.