Like Eating Glass

Silent Alarm arrived in early 2005 and immediately felt like the sound of that particular moment — angular post-punk guitars, rhythm section locked tight as machinery, Kele Okereke's voice carrying an urgency that the music amplified rather than illustrated.

Like Eating Glass opens Silent Alarm and states the case immediately: a guitar figure that descends like a question, Russell Lissack's countermelody answering it, the rhythm section of Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong driving with percussive precision.

Bloc Party's subsequent albums have been more uneven, and the band has gone through significant lineup changes. Silent Alarm remains their definitive statement — a perfect moment of a band at full power.