I took a chance on Bloc Party after hearing only, “Helicopter” on the soundtrack to one of the FIFA soccer games, the song was strong. I read a couple of positive reviews of the album and on to the music club website I was part of. I may seem like a mark for having that much faith, buying an album from a song that was clearly marketed to me through my favorite sport. Maybe I’m a mark because the Anglophile in me couldn’t resist the delightful accent of lead singer Kele Okereke’s voice. Sometimes albums fall out of the sky and you just happen to be there to catch the vibrations. Mark my words, in 2005 and now, this is a great album.

I fell in love with this album my last year of high school, and the singles from it dotted just about every playlist I made as a college freshman. I didn’t know how formational it was to me until I started falling asleep to it, all that guitar. The aforementioned single “Helicopter” would also go on to appear on one of the Guitar Hero games, it was truly a time to be alive. Its frantic, high energy guitar focused greatness could not be contained, “Stop being, so American, there’s a time and there’s a place.” Clocking in at over 170 beats per minute, it’s like these guitars are racing to a finish line.

“Turning away from the light, becoming adult, turning into myself, I wanted to bite not to destroy, to feel her underneath, turning into the light.” “Banquet” hooks me right away every time with the mix starting out with one guitar in each ear, playing back and forth at each other. A little bit about growing up, a little bit too much guitar, and it always feels a little short, leaving you waiting for the next time it comes on your playlist. They struck a nerve with the way this one feels, and then accentuated it with an angry guitar outro to bring the chaos to a natural conclusion.

There’s an angelic quality to the guitar arpeggio and atmosphere created on the album track, “So Here We Are.” While it is light on lyrics, it creates this space where you can just lay back and enjoy it until it crescendos with the repeated, “I can see again.” As if to pull a 180 on that thought, on, “The Pioneers” we get a nervous and tense lyrical onslaught followed by a despondent chorus, “We promised the world we’d tame it, what were we hoping for?”

If you’ve been keeping up with this weekly series, you know the bias toward guitar focused albums is not something I’ve hidden. This is one that may have slipped through the cracks despite nearly universal critical acclaim and selling over a million copies. The record takes you on a six string journey for nearly an hour, and it’s a ride you will want to take again. I hope you continue turning into the light, whatever that means for you.