Bloc Party Intimacy (Review) II

Bloc Party fans all over waited patiently for October 27th. This marked the day that the final and full version of their third album "Intimacy" hit shops and arrived in the mail for everyone who ordered the digital version package. Besides a simple and slightly racy cover art, owners of the album get three new tracks and one track that has been parked in EP form since the summer. 
I stated in a previous review that the digital version of the album only came with ten tracks. In September, the band announced that they were releasing another track to be added to the soon to be released hard version of the album called Talons. Talons, along with Letter To My Son, Your Visits are Getting Shorter, and the summer release Flux were added to the record to round out the count to fourteen. Flux, the now well known and copiously remixed song takes over as the last track on the record.
The new track 9, Talons rocks a steady half time march in the background offering a compliment to the double time classic Bloc Party rock drum ride. Kele revisits the thoughts of death on this track stating that "When it comes/It will feel like a kiss/Silent and velvet". After hearing the track the first few times, I didn't want to jump to any conclusions but by looking at the video, its pretty clear. The whole time, a shirtless Okereke is running and hiding from a hooded girl who trails with her enough power to control the lights in every room she enters. At the end of the video, the frontman is consumed by a white hot light.
Letter To My Son, picking up where the album used to end with Ion Square, sounds like it could have been recorded in 1988 with its slow spacey guitars and the repetitive hook resounding at the chorus. LIke a bento box, everything in this song is laid out in its place. The lyrics are heart wrenchingly sad but so perfectly written that it can be listened to on repeat multiple times. Autumn is being apologized to in this track for what appears to be a fateful night where he got her pregnant and he now has to become a solid stable person for not only her but this soon to come baby. I don't know...I leave that one out there for further analysis.
The thirteenth track on this platter is called Your Visits Are Getting Shorter. The same loop sampling style that was used the in the banger joint Mercury was adopted for the start of this song as well. Padded underneath by a synth riff that feels as if Mark Mothersbaugh presented it to the band like Excalibur, this track may take the place as the best song on the album (in my opinion, of course). The lyrics are straight forward on this track. Guy loves girl/Guy believes girl is losing interesest/Guy becomes jealous of other dudes/Guy tells girl he will always be there no matter what happens. Amazing song.
Intimacy shows the passion of a man who is very in touch with his emotions and is willing to share it in a very dramatic way with everyone who is ready to listen. The lyrics paint the picture of that friend who is so inside of his own head and who is such a romantic that he is damn near hopeless (usually, I'm that friend so I can relate). Luckily for the Bloc, these words of love and pain are surrounded by murderous drums (loops and real), killer synth, guitars that are beyond creative, and champagne powder smooth vocals. I said it for the digital version and I will say it for this one. Bloc Party ain't going nowhere. If they keep cranking out this art, they will keep the lights on for a long time.