“Pioneers” by Bloc Party
A sound, simple way of understanding Bloc Party’s “Pioneers” is as it being about British imperialism. Around the time of its release Bloc Party’s homeland, the United Kingdom, had decided to get involved in the highly controversial, US-led War in Afghanistan. And Bloc Party, being who they are, apparently had something to say on the matter. Their criticism reads along the lines of any nation hoping to ‘tame the world’ being a vain pursuit.
Moreover they seemingly argue that peace is a viable alternative to war. But again, those are just theories concerning this song’s overall meaning. For instance, in the last chorus Kele seems to get quite interpersonal as opposed to speaking on a general level. But either way, the title of the track would point to the idea of people sometimes being overly ambitious in terms of ‘conquering the world’.
Facts about “Pioneers”
This song is sometimes mistakenly referred to as The Pioneers, as the title was misprinted on “Silent Alarm”, the album it is featured on.
The official release date of “Pioneers”, via Wichita Recordings, was on 14 February, 2005.
The music video to this track had Aoife McArdle as its director. And being one of the singles issued from “Silent Alarm”, it did manage to make it onto the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart.
“Pioneers” was written by Bloc Party bandmates. As of that time, the band was made up of the following members:
- Kele
- Russell Lissack
- Gordon Moakes
- Matt Tong
And the tune was produced by one of the band’s regular collaborators, Paul Epworth. Below are some other notable Bloc Party songs co-produced by Epworth:
Summary
In all, “Pioneers” appears to be Bloc Party’s way of strongly criticizing the imperial way of thought that powerful nations like Britain have possessed.
