A Weekend in the City

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A Weekend in the City
A Weekend in the City cover
Studio album by Bloc Party
Released 5 February 2007 (2007-02-05)
Recorded Grouse Lodge Studios, Westmeath, Ireland
Genre Indie rock, art rock
Length 51:50
Label Wichita (UK)
Vice (U.S.)
Producer Jacknife Lee
Professional reviews
Bloc Party chronology
Two More Years EP
(2005)		 A Weekend in the City
(2007)
Singles from A Weekend in the City
  1. "The Prayer"
    Released: 29 January 2007
  2. "I Still Remember"
    Released: 9 April 2007
  3. "Hunting for Witches"
    Released: 9 July 2007
  4. "Flux"
    Released: 12 November 2007

A Weekend in the City is the second studio album by Bloc Party, which was released on 5 February 2007. The album was produced by Jacknife Lee. The album cover is A Modern Project by Rut Blees Luxemburg. This album deals much more with normal day working life than was addressed on Silent Alarm, drawing themes from the 7 July 2005 London bombings, immigration, drug abuse, Black British lifestyle, and criticism of youth subculture and casual sex. The album has been met with largely positive reviews by web-critics and fans alike.[1][2][3]

The album came in at #56 in the UK end of year album chart, selling around 266,500 copies in 2007. To date over 840,000 copies of the album have been sold worldwide.

The first UK single, "The Prayer", was released on 29 January 2007. The first single in the U.S. is "I Still Remember". The album itself entered the UK chart at number 2. In the U.S., the album debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200,[4] with 47,726 copies sold (according to Nielsen SoundScan).[5]

Contents

[edit] Album history

"Song for Clay (Disappear Here)" was originally titled "Merge on the Freeway", and "Song for Clayton" (and is inspired by the novel Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis),[6] "The Prayer" was originally "A Prayer to the Lord", "On" was originally "Wet", "Where Is Home?" was originally "Death of a Century", "Machine" and "Perfect Teens", and "I Still Remember" was originally "It Started in an Afternoon".

A low-quality rip of the album was leaked in its entirety in November 2006, three months before the official release.[7] Faculty from V2 Records have been trying to delete the leaked files from P2P and torrent networks while keeping the leak unknown to the public.[citation needed] A high-quality rip of the album became available through various torrent networks on 11 January 2007.

When the album was previewed (seemingly in its entirety) on MySpace, the song "Where Is Home?" was omitted, suggesting it may not appear on the album upon its release. However, the song was indeed included on the CD and vinyl releases.

The song SRXT takes its name from the drug Seroxat (with all of the vowels removed), controversial for the suggestion it causes suicide. This relates to the theme of the song which is that of suicide. The track was originally called Seroxat, but was later changed to SRXT in order to avoid legal issues. In that song there is the line I called up Eugene, Told him I was drowning. Eugene is Kele Okereke's father's name in real life.

[edit] Special editions

On January 23, 2007 (2007-01-23) the album became available for pre-order on the U.S. iTunes, with two bonus tracks added, one of them "pre-order only" (see below). There are several different editions of the CD that are only available in certain countries or at certain retailers, containing one or two other bonus tracks. On these editions, the bonus tracks are separated from the others by a silent three minute pregap.

A special two-disc limited edition version of the CD was released alongside a bonus DVD disc containing The Making of A Weekend in the City and the music videos for "The Prayer" and "I Still Remember".

As with Bloc Party's debut Silent Alarm, there were two vinyl editions initially released: a standard, single LP on black vinyl, and a limited edition picture disc LP, which featured the album cover on its A side and a tracklisting on black background on its B side. There are only 1000 copies of the limted edition picture disc LP.

Two songs that have been played live prior to the album's release but did not make it onto the album are "England" (formerly "Blue Moon") and "We Were Lovers" (formerly "Into the Blue" and "Cells Shaped Like Stars"). Both serve as B-sides to "The Prayer" as well as bonus tracks to the Japanese edition of the album.

On July 23, 2007 (2007-07-23) the album was reissued in Australia as a double disc CD/DVD tour edition. The CD was expanded with bonus remixes and the second disc was a DVD featuring tracks recorded for Britain's Channel 4.

In the UK, the album was reissued on November 19, 2007 (2007-11-19) in both CD and CD/DVD formats. The tracklisting was reconfigured to include new single "Flux".

[edit] Track listing

[edit] CD: Wichita / WEBB120CD (UK)

  1. "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)" – 4:49
  2. "Hunting for Witches" – 3:31
  3. "Waiting for the 7.18" – 4:17
  4. "The Prayer" – 3:45
  5. "Uniform" – 5:32
  6. "On" – 4:46
  7. "Where Is Home?" – 4:54
  8. "Kreuzberg" – 5:27
  9. "I Still Remember" – 4:23
  10. "Sunday" – 4:59
  11. "SRXT" – 4:51
  • also available on LP (WEBB120LP) and picture disc (WEBB120PD)

[edit] CD/DVD: Wichita / WEBB120CDL (UK)

CD as above plus the following on DVD:

  1. "Studio Footage"
  2. "Interviews"
  3. "The Prayer" (video)
  4. "I Still Remember" (video)

[edit] CD: Wichita / WEBB120CDX (UK)

  1. "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)" – 4:49
  2. "Hunting for Witches" – 3:31
  3. "Waiting for the 7.18" – 4:17
  4. "The Prayer" – 3:45
  5. "Uniform" – 5:32
  6. "On" – 4:46
  7. "Where Is Home?" – 4:54
  8. "Kreuzberg" – 5:27
  9. "I Still Remember" – 4:23
  10. "Flux" – 3:37
  11. "Sunday" – 4:59
  12. "SRXT" – 4:51

[edit] CD/DVD: Wichita / WEBB120CDX2 (UK)

CD as above. Includes DVD with bonus footage:

Live at the Leeds Festival 2007

  1. "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)"
  2. "Positive Tension"
  3. "Hunting for Witches"
  4. "Waiting for the 7.18"
  5. "Banquet"
  6. "This Modern Love"
  7. "The Prayer"
  8. "So Here We Are"
  9. "Like Eating Glass"
  10. "She's Hearing Voices"
  11. "Helicopter"

All tracks are BBC Live Versions

Videos

  1. "The Prayer"
  2. "I Still Remember"
  3. "Hunting for Witches"
  4. "Flux"

[edit] CD/DVD: Wichita / WEBB120CDAU (Australia)

CD

  1. "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)" – 4:49
  2. "Hunting for Witches" – 3:31
  3. "Waiting for the 7.18" – 4:17
  4. "The Prayer" – 3:45
  5. "Uniform" – 5:32
  6. "On" – 4:46
  7. "Where Is Home?" – 4:54
  8. "Kreuzberg" – 5:27
  9. "I Still Remember" – 4:23
  10. "Sunday" – 4:59
  11. "SRXT" – 4:51
  12. "Uniform" (James Rutledge Remix) – 8:34
  13. "Hunting For Witches" (Fury666 Remix) – 3:42
  14. "I Still Remember" (Speaker Junk Bass Bin Remix) – 5:13
  15. "Hunting For Witches" (Crystal Castles Remix) – 4:57

DVD

  1. Channel 4 Music Special:
    1. "Banquet"
    2. "Hunting For Witches"
    3. "I Still Remember"
    4. "Sunday"
    5. "The Prayer"
    6. "Uniform"
    7. "Waiting For The 7.18"

[edit] Bonus tracks

A collection of most of Bloc Party's B-sides have been dubbed by fans as "Another Weekend in the City":

[edit] Use of songs in other media

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City. Posted 15 November 2006.
  2. ^ Weak Leak? Posted 22 November 2006.
  3. ^ A Weekend in the City. Posted 2 December 2006.
  4. ^ Top Music Charts - Hot 100 - Billboard 200 - Music Genre Sales. www.billboard.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-01.
  5. ^ IndieHQ, "Independent Sales Chart 2-14-07", IndieHQ.com, 14 February 2007.
  6. ^ Exclusive: Kele Okereke Talks New Bloc Party Album. Posted 8 June 2006.
  7. ^ A Weekend in the City Watercooler. Posted 13 November 2006.
  8. ^ Weekly Mix - Season 4. Music from the O.C.. Retrieved on 2007-02-17.
v • d • e
Bloc Party
Russell Lissack · Gordon Moakes · Kele Okereke · Matt Tong
David Searston · Mat Coleman · James Chorley
Studio albums
Silent Alarm · A Weekend in the City
Remix album
EPs
Singles
Related articles