“Banquet” by Bloc Party

"Banquet" is the song that broke Bloc Party beyond the British indie scene, first released in May 2004 on Moshi Moshi as a double A-side with "Staying Fat", and later a highlight of their debut album Silent Alarm. Wichita put it out again as a single in its own right on 25 April 2005, and it climbed to 13 on the UK Singles Chart.

It's a taut, nervy thing, all jagged guitars jabbing at each other over a rhythm section that sounds like it's been drinking espresso since breakfast, with Kele Okereke's vocal pitched somewhere between desire and panic. Paul Epworth produced it with the band, Mark "Top" Rankin recorded it and Rich Costey mixed it, keeping the attack sharp and the low end punchy. All four members, Okereke, Russell Lissack, Gordon Moakes and Matt Tong, share the writing credit.

It was their first single on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, reaching 34, and it's often credited as their North American breakthrough; Fort Minor even worked it into a track called "Bloc Party" on a mixtape. NME later ranked it 31st among the best tracks of the decade and, in 2011, 20th on its list of the 150 best tracks of the previous 15 years, and Triple J listeners put it at 54 in their Hottest 100 of all time.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.