Too long and every song is pretty much the same. I like "Helicopter", though.

The first time I heard 'So Here we Are' was as I pulled up outside my house in the pouring rain. I was tired, cold, fed up after a long shift, but just sat there mesmerised by this stunning sound. It was like hearing The Cocteau Twins for the first time...just one of the most beautiful and indescribable things I'd ever heard.
I bought the album the next day and uncovered a cocktail of influences ranging from Gang of Four to The Cure, and I was instantly hooked.
Popular opinion is that this is Bloc Party's best album by far. I don't agree with that assessment at all. It's brilliant in places (Banquet, Like Eating Glass, So Here we are) but not as consistent as the follow up.

some catchy tunes and average lyrics. nothing special. still fun.
highlights : like eating glass, banquet.

This is a great album. Shame it all went downhill for the band after this!

ONe of the most amazing albums of the past 10 years. A grower on first listen youll be disspaointed but with more rotations youll learn to love the psychodelic drum beats of Helicopter and Banquest to the atmospheric genius of She's HEaring Voice, Breaking Glass and lead single - This Modern Love..... Bloc Party remain a great band but they have never come close to approaching the class of their debut. All fans live in hope that we can hear something which comes close again.

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Top notch.

To me, this album was like the Emperor's New Clothes. When it came out, there was so much buzz about how great it was, people went along with it and trumpeted its genius. It's like a crowd of people staring at a piece of modern art, when none of them enjoy it, but they all pretend to so that nobody thinks they're a pleb. There is nothing really wrong with this album, but it's not genius.

Riding high on the brit-wave in 2005 was Bloc Party and their silent alarm. "like eating glass" is a rousing opener with an urgent sense of desparation, where one's house is so inhabitable that it's "Like drinking Poison, like eating glass " (with rapid drumming). i hear franz ferdinand in the guitar of the opening of the next song, "helicopter" ("are you hoping for a miracle?"), with some fine, intricate strumming to close it out. "positive tension" sounds like its title, building up to "the reckoning" described as "something glorious is about to happen", with a "run run run" chorus that reminds me of some 80s song. They even rock in a blur-sorta-way like on "banquet". They go a bit political in the charging "price of gas". It's a pretty good album for its genre. There's no one song i absolutely love, but it's pretty solid through "luno".

This is actually good. I'll highlight Like Eating Glass, Helicopter, This Modern Love and Blue Light. Those are 4 enjoyable songs. Silent Alarm isn't by any stretch of the imagination one of the 10 best albums of the 2000's, but, still, it delivers.