Bloc Party - Ion Square

“Who said unbroken happiness, is a bore?”

I surprise myself recently with the things that bore me. Some conversations just seem so old; I do not even bother to speak during them anymore. Some nights out I nod off and can barely even pretend to be interested. The clubs, and bars, and all the places young people go, all those bright lights, they bore me.

We as humans tend to romanticize and dramatize our lives. We put far too much importance on some things and hardly enough on others. Recently I told a young girl that she did not know what love is. I may have been too hard on her, but that’s just what I assume of people these days, not all people, but most people. This is something that afflicts no single social demographic, it seems to me people of all cultures, all ages, and all lifestyles do not know what love is.

Love is a selfless thing; you do not expect happiness from your other you hope to see them happy. Love is supposed to have meaning beyond lust, and surely it should be able to survive trivialities of all kinds. Everyone is so busy playing the game they have forgotten what they really wanted in the first place, and manipulation is no way love someone. Sometimes it seems like no one gets it, well not everyone, Kele Okereke seems to know what I am talking about.

I mentioned in the last review that Okereke has a way with words, and a certain insight into, or at least appreciation of, human emotion. I love the song “I Still Remember,” but “Ion Square,” was the song I really wanted to talk about, a song I first heard when my big brother, Sean, threw it on my FaceBook wall. This has been a difficult set of reviews for me, not only was picking two songs by Bloc Party, only two, very hard, but I found myself rambling about irrelevant things, like myself and my thoughts, when I should be talking about the much more interesting Bloc Party. But when you hear a song that understands something as important as love, and when you feel like myself, isolated, it is hard not to ramble and wonder what has gone so wrong, not just with myself but with the whole damn subject matter. It is hard not to ramble and wonder about the extravagant joy that is obtainable within the arms of another. “Ion Square” is a song about love, real love, true love, a love that stands the test of time, a love that lingers long past the expiration date of intense sexual hunger, a love that never fucking ends.

Thank you Kele Okereke and Bloc Party for “Ion Square.” This gradually building song that by its end is intense. Lyrics that I nearly wrote myself in off handed dialogues and poems here and there, and a handful more words of simple thoughts expressed just so that I would never be able to put together myself. Whenever I can... or anyone can reach into a song and think it’s their own, when in truth they have no right to claim it as their property, whenever that happens something very powerful has happened. It is beautiful to hear someone uniquely describe a real love, the love of being together through time. A real love song nearly missed in an ocean of so many “I Just had Sex,” songs.

“And the hunger of those early years will never return,
But I don't mind, I don't mind.
'Cause I love my mind when I'm fucking you,
Slowed down to a crawl.
Years of crime and the bread line,
Have not at all dimmed your shine.
So let's stay in, let the sofa be our car.
Let's stay in, let the TV be our stars.
I found my dancing shoes but they don't fit.
All the bright lights do is bore me.
They bore me.”

I surprise myself sometimes with the things that bore me now. All the clubs and bars, all those bright lights, and all those ordinary girls, they bore me... they bore me. Real love is difficult to find, but there is no substitute, it is the sort of thing that still greatly excites me and gets me out of bed in the morning, I think we are all alike like that. Yet so many people compromise, so many people do not even try, more about that next month.

Keep on rocking in the free world.

- Colin Kelly

P.S. You may have guessed my favourite romantic move is “The Fountain.”

Kele looking dramatic and cool.