So, in the vein of Radiohead, Bloc Party have a pre-order up for their third record “Intimacy”, whose cover I’d post if I could find a picture of it. I just found out about it yesterday (the album and the pre-order), through a Facebook update, so I assume this has only been going on since Monday when Bloc Party apparently had a webchat with their fans, and revealed the album news.
It goes like this: When you pre-order the album, you can either just get the digital copy for $10, which you’ll be able to download tomorrow, or get the physical/digital bundle for $20, which will allow you to still be able to download the album tomorrow as well as get the physical copy Oct 28th. Apparently, the physical copy is going to have some new or different tracks on it than the digital copy. I’m not sure what exactly that entails, because, according to an interview with Kele Okereke, the lead singer/guitarist, that Rolling Stone conducted, the band doesn’t even know what it entails yet. Let’s hope it’s possibly another CD of tracks a la Radiohead’s “In Rainbows”
Now, don’t worry, Bloc Party aren’t being dicks (Wait I’m gonna explain it). I know some of you have gone to the site to pre-order the album and noticed that if you get the physical/digital bundle you’re paying $10 for the digital copy plus $10 for the physical copy. I know nearly all of you who just noticed that are thinking exactly what i thought: Greedy fucks. They aren’t though. I checked and the physical/digital bundle, if you live anywhere in the world besides the Americas, is only ten pounds. Now that makes a helluva lot more sense huh? I was quite relieved when I saw that, because it assured me that Bloc Party weren’t being the greedy fucks i had so quickly and wrongly assumed. Although, Kele Okereke, the lead singer, did say he didn’t want to give away for free because he wants to get paid in the Rolling Stone interview mentioned above (He also said it was a break-up album).
So, basically, the shitty dollar strikes again! Yes, folks, since they’re British and we’re American we get to pay double their price. Or if you’re more cynical, Bloc Party are greedy fucks. Personally, I fall somewhere in between. I say if you’re ordering the Physical/Digital bundle then by all means the digital side of things should be free. So given that the Physical only is 8 pounds, that’d be basically 16 dollars. Well, you know, on second thought, I think I’ve just fallen squarely into the shitty dollar category, because I don’t mind paying four bucks to get to listen to an album a little more than two months before it comes out. However, you could argue that the Physical copy should just be $10 bucks, regardless of where you live. On the other hand though, a band does have to make money to survive, especially when they’re still tied to a label. Point is, this debate could go round and round, and is mostly, if not wholly pointless. After all, it’s all about the music.
Economic rants aside, I couldn’t help but purchase it! After all those new tracks might be exclusive only to the pre-order. Plus, I love both of the old Bloc Party records, ESPECIALLY “A Weekend in the City”, and the thought of getting a new Bloc Party record to listen to TOMORROW, which will help get me through another day at work, was too good to pass up.
I shall be listening to this record tomorrow, provided it arrives before I head into work, because my network connection at work is terrible. I’ll try to have something up about it on Monday. If any of you kids decide to do the same feel free to leave some comments over the weekend on this post, or wait and leave some comments on the actual review post, which, like I said, should be up Monday.
PS Forgive me for the weird economic rant. Not quite sure where that came from.
