Year in Rock 2012 Nominee: Bloc Party

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BLOC PARTY
Coliseum
From: Four
Released: August 21

With the world expecting another step away from their angular rock roots, Bloc Party pulled a big time swerve in 2012 by not only going back to their roots, but going back even further. Four mostly ignores the jangly guitars that fell out of favour not long after their lauded debut Silent Alarm, opting to turn up the distortion and rock out. It's more subtle on some songs than others, but Coliseum is the whole amusement park in one quick ride; starting off as a swampy toe-tapper, it soon mutates into a menacing, paranoid chugger, a rollercoaster that stops using those pesky rails as a guideline at the one minute mark and drags you along helplessly through a minefield.

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