Driven by Kele Okereke's angular vocals and shutterbug lyrics, Bloc Party [ tickets ] delivers a dark snapshot of modern UK life on "A Weekend in the City," their aptly titled second album. "Weekend" sees London as a riveting, post-modern capital, filled with frightened characters--afraid of their neighbors, their surroundings and, mostly, afraid of themselves.

Opener "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)" starts out quietly, Okereke crying alongside a clean guitar, "I am trying to be heroic/As all around me history sinks." Drummer Matt Tong barrels thunder through the quiet with Russell Lissack's guitar railing a riff so angry it could make the Queen quiver. That tight rhythm section powers this album, as Bloc Party veers into Cure-style synth-rock, romantic balladry and balls-out hard rock, as they do on the hook-heavy single "Hunting for Witches," which chronicles a man on his roof with a shotgun, a six-pack and a sudden fear of "the enemy among us."

Okereke's voice is startling, thick with his English accent delivering sometimes-awkward lyrics. But layers of guitar and sound effects are perfectly placed, accenting memorable hooks, as if Queen and Joy Division somehow had a cyber-loving kid, a shot of '80s pop euphoria mixed in for good measure. The new wave, rapturous and lush "On" captures a hopeless druggie who finds "A sudden clearness, a clarity/Hidden away in every locked toilet."

While there are certainly a few throwaways tucked away here--the disjointed "Where is Home" not the least among them--"A Weekend in the City," like any worthwhile collection, features enough masterpieces to make it an inspired effort.