Kele
The Boxer
(Wichita/Cooperative/Shock)
Whatever your thoughts on Bloc Party, singer-guitarist Kele Okereke has a voice that drips pathos. Everything he sings is like a secret he’s releasing only because it’s welled up inside him for long enough. It'’s been just as big a part of the English quartet’s global appeal as has its nimble, danceable hybrid of post-punk and guitar-pop. And it’s a natural fit with the spare, twitchy digital backdrop Okereke has forged for his first solo album.
Working with Spank Rock producer XXXchange, Okereke achieves something akin to what Thom Yorke did with The Eraser: he sheds the limitations of fronting a band to explore electronic music’s endless sense of space. Okereke may call upon the soulful presence of genre-hopping singers Jodie Scantlebury and Bobbie Gordon for half of the songs, but this record nevertheless feels intensely personal. (The album title is a reference to his time learning kick-boxing when Bloc Party began its current hiatus.)
Okereke obviously takes great care choosing his words – he’s penned a forthcoming book of short stories – and throughout The Boxer he manages to put himself way out there emotionally while keeping the lyrics safely vague. The refrains “I’m learning to be laidback”, “You’re making me older / You’re making me ill”, and “There’s a voice in my head that I probably should have trusted” all get at self-improvement by way of regret, pushing along an album that culminates with ‘Yesterday’s Gone’, a celebration of resilience in the face of everything endured before. That’s not to say a track like the opening ‘Walk Tall’ lacks confidence; in fact, it flirts with the possibility of being a chest-pounding club banger. Lead single ‘Tenderoni’, mixed by Chris Coady (TV On The Radio, Dappled Cities), is the kind of song that gets you pumped before a big night out, whereas ‘On The Lam’ gets its kicks by tweaking old-school electro-pop with unexpected drum breaks.
Still, it’s the tender moments that truly resonate. On the beautifully produced ‘New Rules’, Okereke plays everything close to his chest as thin traces of sound ricochet around an impossibly intimate automated phone message. And more than anywhere else, he utterly sells the emotion behind the single-worthy ‘Everything You Wanted’. Despite the constant electronics on display, there’s no icy detachment here. As much as this formula works for Okereke, a few songs tastefully mix things up: ‘Rise’ nails a glitch-y house beat and almost Bowie-ish vocal turn, while the chant-like singing of ‘Other Side’ recalls TV On The Radio and the wobbly guitar line on ‘Unholy Thoughts’ brings back those New Order comparisons Bloc Party was saddled with early on.
Let’s not downplay the role of XXXchange, however. The producer gets to showcase his abilities outside of a strictly hip-hop/electro setting, catering his many tricks to what best suits Okereke. Sonically, The Boxer is clean, thrumming, and all too effective. It’s never hemmed in by what’s expected of it, but at the same time XXXchange hasn’t ditched the random little choices of sounds that made Spank Rock’s YoYoYoYoYo so interesting on the ears. This is a dream pairing, really, yielding results far stronger than even the most loyal Bloc Party fans might have guessed.
Doug Wallen