Hey, a new Bloc Party album this week!

To combat the election of a Minotaur politician pupetteered by space apes -- as seen above -- Bloc Party is throwing its hat in the ring of new albums released mere days after confirmation of their existence. The 10-track "Intimacy" follows up the band's sophomore LP, "A Weekend in the City," with a digital release Thursday and a physical edition Oct. 28, and again finds them working with old-hand producers Paul Epworth and Jacknife Lee, with My Bloody Valentine vet Alan Moulder behind the mixing board. To judge by the lead single "Mercury" and between-albums teaser single "Flux," the band has been indulging its electronica fix lately and might be returning to the dance-floor ethos that made them so inescapable in 2005.

Digital preorders are available here. The album will cost you whatever you like (as long as that price is $10). With "Intimacy," Bloc Party follows Radiohead, the Raconteurs and Nine Inch Nails in this welcome new quick-release schedule that both fixes the problem of long-lead leaks (like the ones that afflicted the much-anticipated "Weekend") and generates some heat for the release. Glad to see that Kele knows that living well and releasing new records is, truly, the best revenge.

-- August Brown