A year after Four, in mid-August 2013, Bloc Party released The Nextwave Sessions, an EP containing five tracks previously performed live during their North American tour. Not even 18 minutes of music for songs that actually seem like a collection of B-sides from Four. The style is the same.

However, these are songs that, despite everything, always make you get up and dance, suitable for a party, as in the case of "Ratchet" and "French Exit," which follow "Octopus," "Team A," and "So He Begins to Lie" from Four.

Others instead, "Obscene" and "Montreal," make you close your eyes and relax: delicate and perhaps the best of the EP, they hark back to the sounds of "The Healing" and, going further back, "Signs" from Intimacy.

Nothing new then except for the last song, "Children of the Future," which has a basic riff reminiscent of early Placebo. An interesting but isolated case.

A short but pleasant and not trivial EP as it might seem. An EP that, in the end, sums up where these four Englishmen have arrived.

Tracklist and Videos

01   Obscene (03:44)

02   Ratchet (03:18)

03   Montreal (04:39)

04   Children of the Future (03:07)

05   French Exit (02:52)

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