A Weekend in the City by Bloc Party

A Weekend in the City is the second studio album by British indie rock band Bloc Party. It was recorded at Grouse Lodge Studios in Westmeath, Ireland, in mid-2006 and was produced by Jacknife Lee. The album was refined and mixed at several locations in London at the end of 2006. It was released on 24 January 2007 in Japan and in the first week of February in the rest of the world, with Wichita Recordings as the primary label. The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and on the Irish Albums Chart. In the United States, it entered the Billboard 200 at number 12. Bloc Party worked to craft an album that distanced them from the conventional guitar band set-up by incorporating more electronically processed beats and additional instrumentation. Computer programs were extensively used to enrich and amend recorded takes, while a string sextet was hired to perform on some of the tracks. The subject matter of frontman and chief lyricist Kele Okereke's lyrics for A Weekend in the City covers issues such as drug use, sexuality, and terrorism. The album's three original singles, "The Prayer", "I Still Remember", and "Hunting for Witches", address these themes respectively. Bloc Party's new musical directions and more forthright lyrics either impressed or alienated critics. Reviewers generally treated A Weekend in the City as an important stepping stone for the band members in their quest for musical maturity, while The Guardian included it in its list of the "1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die". In November 2007, the album was re-released globally—with the final single, "Flux", as a bonus track—to coincide with Bloc Party's extensive touring schedule.