Bloc Party have announced a special 20th anniversary reissue of ‘Silent Alarm’.
The ‘Banquet’ hitmakers released their debut album – which peaked at number three in the UK charts – in February 2005, and two decades later they’re preparing to drop a four LP box set packed with rare tracks on September 26.
As well as the original album, the collection will include B-sides and rarities, as well as a 2004 BBC Radio 1 John Peel session and seven demo tracks.
There will also be a two CD reissue and double LP repress.
In 2018, the group announce plans to hit the road around the world performing the record in full for the first time, and they’re set to repeat that later this year.
In January, frontman Kele Okereke opened up how it felt to be revisiting the album.
He told Billboard: “It’s nice to be able to go back and listen to those records, and to remember where I was when I wrote them, the conversations that I was having and the people that were in my life.
“That’s the stuff that comes back to me when I go back to these songs and I don’t really do that so often.
“I had to do it for ‘Silent Alarm’ as I had to relearn the songs.
“I’ve always been obsessed with looking forward, but I am recognizing that we’ve done something quite good and it’s nice to bask in that sometimes.”
Before their debut album dropped, Bloc Party had started building up an “underground” reputation for themselves thanks to singles and EPs, but they were determined to “strive further than what people were expecting” with the first full length.
Kele added: “We knew it had to be expansive and there was this fear that we might be pushing it too far when we were in the studio, but we didn’t succumb to that, and I’m glad that we managed to express what we wanted to express.
“I’m glad that it worked and we made the best record we could, because it has stood the test of time.”