[5] On 22 January 2020, lead singer Kele Okereke announced on his personal social media accounts that Bloc Party had begun writing a new album in the previous few weeks.

[5] Speaking about "Traps", Okereke said: "From the moment we wrote 'Traps', we knew it had to be the first thing people heard from this album; playing it in soundchecks on our last tour before it was finished and hearing how it sounded in those big rooms and outdoors.

Writing for the former, Patrick Lyons criticised the band for their lack of imagination: "A devoted fan with a magnifying glass could identify every trick Alpha Games lifts from Silent Alarm," he wrote.

Lyons did, however, praise the drumming and vocal work of Bartle, describing her contributions as "a new trick in Bloc Party's repertoire" and responsible for "the album's best hooks".

[2] Writing for the latter, meanwhile, Neil McCormick noted that the band sounded "strangely ambivalent" on the album, adding that they seemed "trapped between the visceral thrill of lean, modern guitar music and their doubts about its form and function".