Bloc Party explain rush-release

Sinead Garvan
Newsbeat entertainment reporter

Kele Okereke described Bloc Party's album as a "pop record"

Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke has said his band have rush-released their new record because he was "dispirited" by the conventional album process.

The frontman admitted that by the time both their debut album Silent Alarm and and follow-up A Weekend In The City finally came out, he had lost interest.

He said: "We finished the record a few months ago and we just thought 'Why wait six months to release it?'"

Intimacy was released online on Thursday.

'Disappointing process'

The band made the shock announcement to release the record during their first ever web chat with fans on Monday.

"I just want it to be out there really, that was really the main impetus for doing it this way," Okereke explained.

"It was a real dispiriting process with the second record and the first because we finished them in the summer and we had to wait six months before we released them.

"By the time they came out I wasn't that interested. This time it all feels kind of new and I'm excited by the whole prospect."

The album, which is their third, features 10 tracks including their recent experimental single Mercury. Despite a change in direction with the track, Okereke insists their third album is very much a "pop record".

"It isn't really experimental, it's still pop music," he said. "The goal was to make music which sounded good on the dance floor or stuff that would make people want to move as opposed to something that you want to sit down and immerse yourself in.

"We tried make something that was up and just tried to make some unconventional sounds rather than necessarily experiment with ideas about form."

'Unfinished Business'

The album was recorded in two sessions in Kent and London with Paul Epworth, who produced their debut and Jacknife Lee, who worked on Bloc Party's follow-up.

Bloc Party announced the rush-release of their new album online

"It was great working with them but we kind of felt we had unfinished business working with the pair of them," he argued.

"Also by recording less songs you have a higher control quality because you really make sure you give each song what it needs."

Bloc Party are due to play the Reading and Leeds Festival this weekend on 23-24 August.

They will also headline The Connect Festival in Scotland on 30 August.