Okereke stated, "All I’m concerned about is playing live shows here to people who want to see us." Reception Commercial Silent Alarm entered the UK Albums Chart and the Irish Albums Chart at number three, selling 61,737 copies during the first week in the former country. The album achieved gold certification within 24 hours of its European release. 350,000 copies were shipped worldwide by the first week of March 2005; 20,000 were sent to America, double the record labels' January forecast. In the US, the record entered the Billboard 200 at number 114 and the Billboard Top Independent Albums at number seven. With little radio support, it became the best-selling release in Vice's history as a label. 123,000 copies of Silent Alarm were sold in the US by the end of July 2005. The record was listed at number 75 in the end-of-year UK Album Chart and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry after more than 500,000 copies were sold in the UK during 2005. According to Nielsen SoundScan, 280,000 copies of the album were sold in the US by January 2007. By August 2012 it had sold 379,000 copies in the United States. At least 88,800 copies were sold in France. More than one million copies have been sold worldwide. Critical Silent Alarm received critical acclaim from critics; aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalised rating of 82 out of 100 based on 32 reviews which indicates "universal acclaim". Drowned in Sounds Gen Williams described the album as "mature and expansive" and wrote that "the autonomy, creativity and sheer, elastic beauty that spans this debut more than justifies the rapidly accelerating hype". Andrew Romano of Newsweek similarly noted that it "lives up to the hype". Summing the record up as "dance rock, but highly caffeinated", Barry Walters of Rolling Stone explained that the tracks are emotive and rhythmic in equal measure, while Nick Southall of Stylus Magazine thought that every song is "full of thrilling ideas and inspired moments". Johnny Davis of Q labelled Silent Alarm "an arty, confident and exhilarating debut", while Joshua Glazer of URB compared Bloc Party to "every legendary band ever who followed an EP with an even better album and on into greatness". The Guardians Alexis Petridis was less receptive and commented that the "reedy vocals and lyrical evocations of suburban ennui ... induce a worrying ennui of their own". Heather Phares of