In the ’00s, the British band Bloc Party became critical and dance-floor darlings for their choppy riffs and energetic rhythms. On their seventh album, a collaboration between the band and pop alchemist Trevor Horn, they add synths to the mix, framing vocalist Kele Okereke in empathic splendor. Anatomy of a Brief Romance is, lyrically, just that: Okereke retells, from the first meeting to the final goodbye, the true story of a love that fully consumed him before sputtering out. He lays out the depth of his amorous obsession amidst the jagged keyboards and cavernous drums on “Love Bombs,” revels in how his new lover is “filling [his] days with wild imaginings” on “Pigwig,” and holds back sobs as he recalls a breach of trust on the anxiety-ridden “Worst Birthday Ever.” The relationship’s end is messy at first—“You say today’s a new day/But I can see you’re still watching/My stories,” Okereke deadpans on the spiky “Stories”—but he comes to terms with his heartbreak on “Eulogy,” bidding his ex farewell as he realizes that “love means different things to different people.”