I remember the first time I heard Silent Alarm it felt like some lightbulbs went off in my brain. Here was an album that defied a lot of traditional songwriting barriers and embraced a genre-blurring approach that fused post-punk urgency with electronic music. It was an album that threw the middle finger up to rigid song structures and allowed rhythms and textures to evolve organically. And most importantly, both from a production standpoint and a song “hook”, it was an album that built their tracks around drummer Matt Tong’s beats. He’s pretty much the star of the show on Silent Alarm, combining furious post-punk BPM’s with a funk rock sense of dynamically interesting syncopated grooves. During the writing and recording process the band actually focused on this focus to generate ideas– Tong was often asked to play something on the drums, which inspired the band to write something based off that part. The result was an album that balanced jagged intensity with melodic richness, where dark, introspective lyrics were offset by vibrant, pulsating energy. It became an instant classic that anyone who grew up in the mid aughts remembers as reshaping the indie rock landscape from the day after it was released.
Standout Songs: “Like Eating Glass”, “Helicopter”, “Banquet”, “This Modern Love”, “Blue Light”
