If Bloc Party had a tenner for every time they've been described as 'the new Franz Ferdinand', they could have retired even before the release of this hotly-anticipated debut album. In fact, the comparison is more than a little misleading. True, the Londoners exude the same kind of spiky, post-punk New Wave cool as their Scottish mentors. But they're also much more austere and much less funky, with a rather doom-laden mentality that calls to mind the early Cure. What really elevates them above the norm is frontman Kele Okereke, whose brooding vocals manage the rare feat of sounding both sensitive and self-confident simultaneously. This is an over-long and over-earnest record with rather too many songs about suburban boredom (which are themselves rather boring). But when Bloc Party really hit their stride, it's easy to see what all the fuss is about. Genius in its puberty.

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