Album Review
Kele – The Boxer
In every interview and appearance since the split of Bloc Party, Kele has been fighting for his solo status. This makes you think the album has obviously been titled to prove that point and make that statement.
The opening track ‘Walk Tall’ kicks this message into your cerebrum with its driving beat and opening shout back lines; ’I don’t know what you’ve been told, but this starts now: walk tall, walk tall’. The driving beat is like a march and feels like it’s commanding you to follow Kele on his journey of solo status. The lead single from the album ‘Tenderoni’ is the straight up dance anthem you will hear in clubs up and down the country. As the track continues it drops more and more into its dance caldron.
Another stand out track on this album is ’Rise’. It builds from humble beginnings that are truly rooted in Bloc Party’s final album ’Intimacy’, dropping more dance and electro layers over these roots and as the track title insinuates it just builds and builds until a female voice appears to instigate a truly mammoth drop into the darkest beats that will send the dance floor into a almost hypnotic state. Although this track kicks Kele’s statement into the forefront of your mind there are a lot of tracks that seem to be an extension of ‘Intimacy’. Track 7 ’Unholy Thoughts’ is testament to this.
Given Kele’s constant cry of independence from Bloc Party, stating at nearly every gig ‘THIS IS MY NEW BAND’ it seems strange that he has appeared to have taken tracks that may have been denied by band mates and worked on them alone. Although, I don’t doubt the driving force behind ‘Intimacy’ was this man.
This album is one of my personal current favourites for getting ready for a night out. So, if you want a good time this is the album for you, just forget all the driving messages behind the songs.