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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

Intimacy
by Bloc Party


8.6

based on 27 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 30 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

Official Artist Site

The English indie rock band's third album was produced by Jacknife Lee and Paul Epworth.

LABEL:	Atlantic
RELEASE DATE:	28 October 2008
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Rock, Indie

NOTES: Available as a download 21 Aug 2008 on blocparty.com.

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

The Guardian

Brave, individual and heartfelt, Intimacy offers treasure for fans old and new.

The New York Times

At times the music, like the lyrics, does illuminate the problem of a band taking itself too seriously. But Bloc Party has always favored drama, and there’s plenty of precedent for overblown sentiment when it comes to pop and broken hearts.

Billboard

Intimacy is the English dance-punk outfit's most urgent-sounding effort yet, and frontman Kele Okereke and his bandmates probably couldn't bear the thought of waiting two or three months for it to be heard.

Mojo

Boldness has its own reward in the big grime beats, tension-filled horns and cold self-loathing of Mercury. [Nov 2008, p.104]

Alternative Press

Intimacy is arguably Bloc Party's finest moment thus far, offering sweat and circuitry, savagery and submission, and a captivating energy that's severely lacking in many music scenes on the planet. [Dec 2008, p.144]

Entertainment Weekly

Despite their third album's title, however, they largely focus here on frantic postpunk aggression that's not necessarily bad, it just isn't what they do best.

Los Angeles Times

This vicious playfulness extends to the music as well, which trims off the magisterial excesses of "Weekend" while keeping the band's recent noisy electronica crush intact.

PopMatters

Intimacy might not actually be all that intimate, but it is a thing of rough, recycled beauty. And if that isn’t worth getting beat up for, I don’t know what is.

Drowned In Sound

Intimacy is not quite the radical statement its makers might think it is (I’m not sure what could be given the group’s evident ambitions), but it’s definitely a little bit of invigorating redemption at a time when doubts were beginning to cloud what was, initially, a flawless reputation.

Urb

Intimacy offers the most ideas that Bloc Party has ever put on display. Skip the first two tracks and you'll find more hits than misses.

Dot Music

Rushed it may have been, but here Bloc Party seem to accurately reflect post-relationship blues: confused, introspective and stung.

Prefix Magazine

On Intimacy his ambition often outpaces the execution.

Rolling Stone

Replacing Bloc Party's distant cool with vivid honesty, Okereke makes Intimacy a confident new peak for his band.

Hot Press

Released on the web fully two months before it hits record stores, Bloc Party’s third album is as gleaming and hermetically sealed as one of Kubrick’s monoliths.

All Music Guide

At times, Intimacy feels rushed and predictable, and at others, it's almost painfully ambitious.

Under The Radar

They are so solid and so confident that it seems inevitable that they will get many chances to slowly drift into more daring lands. But without more risk, they may be destined to make albums like Intimacy--accomplished and intriguing, but not life changing, not classic. [Winter 2008]

Q Magazine

Bloc Party remain a band with the greatness they seek still hovering somewhere on the horizons. [Nov 2008, p.112]

NOW Magazine

The rewards are there--it just takes some work.

Blender

Here, they simply sound jittery, putting romantic complaints to studio-worked music that's oddly brisk and busy, with a dissonance that drowns out the emotion. [Nov 2008, p.73]

Spin

Even as Intimacy gets sonically or lyrically precarious--'Zephyrus' recalls 'Jesus Walks,' for Christ's sake--it does so while reaching hard toward something exhilarating.

Slant Magazine

Bloc Party disavows their history and start at a musical Year Zero. But the band hasn't adequately replaced their former selves to justify jettisoning their pervious strengths.

Uncut

In truth, though, there's not too much here to alarm the undergraduate population.

Observer Music Monthly

Brave, but forgettable.

Pitchfork

While Okereke has described Intimacy as a break-up album, it feels like more of a document of a band disconnected from itself.

Sputnikmusic

Intimacy, as an album, is hit-or-miss.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

Bloc Party has a lot of ideas on Intimacy, but the band should have given itself more time to figure them out.

musicOMH.com

At its best Intimacy is taut and claustrophobic or movingly sentimental, but for the main part it is repetitious and bafflingly poorly realised, especially given that they could have had an extra six months to work on it.

The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 30 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

liu gave it a7:
Being not a fan of bloc party i'd say that this change of sound did not make me buy the record, but at least it made the listening far more challenging. bravo for their courage. although there's a feeling of the release being a bit over-rushed.

StarryEyed gave it a9:
This rating isn't accurate at all as the majority of the reviews posted are reviewing the internet album not the physical release. The three songs tacted on for the final release, "Talons", "Letter to my Son", and "Your Visits are Getting Shorter", are all pretty much excellent and possibly the most accessible joints on the album and really help push the final product to new heights not attained initially.

Chuck B. gave it a9:
I had the online version of this album almost a month ago, and fell in love instantly. Now that the the full album is out, I can't get enough. If you enjoyed either of the previous Bloc Party releases, this is definitely an album to pick up.

Blakey gave it a9:
A definite improvement on the disappointing weekend spent in the city. Some out-there tracks which take some time to get your head around but make for thrilling listening. However a point has to be lost for kele's lackluster and sometimes disturbing lyrics. And surely bloc party have ripped off rage against the machines version of the rolling stones' street fighting man on the first track 'ares'.

Space C. gave it a9:
Fantastic album! At first when i heard it, i was a bit disappointed, but it's a grower. I'm giving it a 8 because the first two tracks never really clicked for me, and feel out of place with the rest of the album.

Matt A. gave it an8:
Let's just stop comparing both this album and A Weekend in the City to Silent Alarm. It is ridiculous to hold Bloc Party to that. Taken on its own merits, this is a solid, interesting album. The lead singer's lyrics are still pretty bad but they weren't great on their debut either and no one seemed to have a problem then. The thing that has always elevated Bloc Party is their energy. It was admittedly more abundant on Silent Alarm than it was on A Weekend in the City, but they have regained some lost ground with this album. So again, don't expect Silent Alarm and you will have much to enjoy here.

Intimacy by Bloc Party

Intimacy
by Bloc Party