Bloc Party is releasing new music. The UK rock band announced their new album, Alpha Shadows, and a teaser single, “Traps” today. The single is a high-energy cocktail of rock and garage band energies, with pop-punk beats punctuating the track. The song is from the viewpoint of someone who just met a potential hookup, but is armed with sinister intentions. “There you go-go / looking like a snack / cute like bambi / but you’re headed to a trap”.

The video itself is a grainy infrared whip pan, the area between an exotic bar and a nightmare. Images of Venus fly-traps and inky drips fill the screen – the imagery of a patient Trap.

“From the moment we wrote ‘Traps’, we knew it had to be the first thing people heard from this album,” Bloc Party singer, songwriter, and guitarist Kele Okereke said, “playing it in soundchecks on our last tour before it was finished and hearing how it sounded in those big rooms and outdoors.”

Alpha Shadows’ Tracklist:

1. Day Drinker
2. Traps
3. You Should Know the Truth
4. Callum Is a Snake
5. Rough Justice
6. The Girls Are Fighting
7. Of Things Yet to Come
8. Sex Magik
9. By Any Means Necessary
10. In Situ
11. If We Get Caught
12. The Peace Offering

Photo credit: Marv Watson