Bloc Party Announce 20th Anniversary Reissue of ‘Silent Alarm’

Two decades on from the release of their critically-acclaimed debut album, English indie-rock veterans Bloc Party have announced a reissue of their Silent Alarm LP.

Set for release on September 26, the group will be reissuing the record as an extensive four LP box set. The first two LPs feature the original record, while the remaining LPs collect a number of B-sides and rarities, alongside their 2004 BBC Radio 1 John Peel session, and seven demo recordings. A two CD reissue and a two LP repress of the record will also be made available.

Silent Alarm was originally released in February 2005 as Bloc Party’s eagerly-anticipated debut release. Following a string of singles and a self-titled EP released across the previous year, the record generated widespread acclaim upon its arrival, and went on to hit No. 3 in the band’s native U.K. 

In the U.S., the record would hit No. 114 on the Billboard 200 and No. 7 on the Independent Albums chart. It also received a nomination for the 2005 Mercury Prize, and helped to establish the group on the global stage amidst the mid-’00s indie-rock explosion.

In 2018, Bloc Party announced a series of international tour dates performing the record in full for the first time, with the band set to reprise this undertaking this year. Launching in Mexico in May, the group will visit California for the Just Like Heaven festival on May 10, before returning to the U.S. later in the month for a series of shows to perform the album in full alongside a selection of other hits.

“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,” frontman Kele Okereke told Billboard in January. “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.”

Bloc Party’s biggest U.S. success came about in 2007 with second album A Weekend in the City, which hit No. 12 on the Billboard 200. Their most recent record, Alpha Games, was released in April 2022, while Okereke’s latest solo album, The Singing Winds Pt. 3, arrived in January.