Personnel: Lucy Wilkins, Alison Dodds, Everton Nelson, Jeremy Morris (violin); Vincent Greene (viola); James Banbury (cello); Jacknife Lee (keyboards, programming); Sam Bell (programming); Liz Neumayer (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Cenzo Townshend.

Recording information: Garage; Garden; Grouse Lodge; Mayfair; Olympic; RAK.

Photographer: Rut Blees Luxemburg.

With its second full-length studio album, A WEEKEND IN THE CITY, Bloc Party seems undaunted in following up its highly acclaimed debut, SILENT ALARM, assuredly presenting another shimmering set of heady, well-honed British rock. While the band's calling cards--alternately angular and chiming guitar lines, frontman Kele Okereke's plaintive vocals, and drummer Matt Tong's precise rhythms--are fully on display, WEEKEND features the London-based quartet in a more muscular mode, a point easily hit home by the fierce opener, "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)," which is marked by roaring six-string riffs and an insistent beat.

Although WEEKEND is less dynamic than SILENT ALARM, like that earlier release, the record is generally frontloaded with more aggressive tracks (particularly the searing, dance-tinged tune "Hunting for Witches"), leaving the latter part of WEEKEND to showcase Bloc Party's shoegaze tendencies ("Kreuzberg") and pop inclinations ("I Still Remember"). Bloc Party often verges on U2/Coldplay-like grandeur here, but it defiantly retains an edge that those acts lack, making this a distinct album by a band of its time.