We’ve been served a heavy dose of aughts-rock nostalgia lately, what with The Strokes’ impactful debut Is This It turning 20 and The Bravery coming out of nowhere to declare comeback intentions. But true heads know the greatest effort to arrive from that suddenly long-gone era was Bloc Party’s masterful debut album Silent Alarm, which sounds as lethal today as it first did back in February 2005.
Case in point: Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke has just released a wonderful solo rendition of iconic track “This Modern Love,” part of a livestream to promote his new solo album, The Waves Pt. 1. The full livestream is available to purchase here, and Kele’s breakaway take on “This Modern Love” can be watched below. It’s just Kele, his voice, guitar, amps, and pedals, and it’s pure bliss.
“shot in an east london studio, exclusively for this stream and to partly make up for being unable to take this album on the road,” Kele writes on YouTube. “watch a very special, intimate 45 minute live performance of songs from the new album the waves pt. 1, plus a couple of extra surprises.”
Performing “This Modern Love” like this might be the biggest surprise of them all, but it’s absolutely no surprise it still sounds as magical as it did all those years ago.