-
8.0
129633
8.0 |
Clash
Alpha Games’ is an exciting return with addictive hooks and array of infectious album stand outs
Read Review
-
8.0
129646
8.0 |
Gigwise
Who doesn’t love a good redemption story?
Read Review
-
8.0
129681
8.0 |
PopMatters
Alpha Games is a superb return to form for Bloc Party, much-awaited, and an excellent entry to a fantastic and idiosyncratic discography
Read Review
-
7.0
129698
7.0 |
All Music
Frequently, Alpha Games sounds like the album they could have released after Silent Alarm if they hadn't been so determined to escape the constraints of the so-called angular scene they were initially associated with
Read Review
-
7.0
129627
7.0 |
Northern Transmissions
They say we become products of our environment and while Okereke states ‘Alpha Games’ was born out of “an ugly time”, Bloc Party’s new album is anything but ugly, although it’s not an example of beauty either – it’s somewhere in-between
Read Review
-
7.0
129825
7.0 |
DIY
Their despair at the state of the world is tangible
Read Review
-
7.0
129618
7.0 |
musicOMH
At times harking back to the glorious early days of Silent Alarm, there’s evidence that the band’s line-up changes have reinvigorated them
Read Review
-
7.0
129621
7.0 |
Loud And Quiet
As a whole Alpha Games is a record defined by its sleazy punk theatrics: jagged guitar lines, campy vocal delivery and lyrics about “the boom boom room” and “strutting round here in those pum pum shorts”
Read Review
-
6.0
129624
6.0 |
NME
This sixth album sees the band's 2.0 line-up tear through political discontent with a banging soundtrack as they find out exactly where they sit in 2022
Read Review
-
6.0
129672
6.0 |
Mojo
BP retain a youthful fixation with personal drama, biting lyrics and angular guitars, laced with keyboards. Print edition only
-
6.0
129649
6.0 |
Dork
The angst and anxiety that has come with those two decades lends it a deliciously spicy edge that saves it from being too much of a safe path mercifully
Read Review
-
5.8
129650
5.8 |
A.V. Club
Alpha Games is the sound of a band trying to reignite its original sense of passion and intensity, to diminished results
Read Review
-
5.2
129816
5.2 |
Pitchfork
Taking cues from their early records, Bloc Party’s sixth album successfully marries post-punk with dance grooves—and confusingly devotes a lot of its energy to spite
Read Review
-
5.0
129673
5.0 |
Uncut
Waspish, charismatically delivered lyrics are let down by workaday instrumental backing. Print edition only
-