Album review: Kele -- The Boxer

KELE Okereke ditches his Bloc Party chums to produce his first full-length solo LP – and the results are mixed.
Titled The Boxer, not to be confused with a million other albums with the same name, it delves into Kele’s influences – anything from early UK garage to Africana – with a grimy, urban feel throughout.
It’s refreshing, in a way, and you have to give the guy some kudos to branch away from one of the most successful UK bands out there but it doesn’t quite work out.
Tenderoni, the first single, is an impressive floor-filler that we’ll be hearing no-end of all summer.
Its delicious, grimy reverb bassline gets the heart pumping and Kele’s recognisable vocals are put to the test as he shouts out “She said she was more than this/and she would rot the brain in the head”. It's awesome.
Unholy Thoughts is probably the only song on the album that comes close to being a Bloc Party track. It’s punky and pulsating, yet charming, and one of the album’s highlights.
The regimental feel to Silent Alarm’s Price of Gas returns for the opener Walk Tall as the military chant of “I don’t know what I’ve been told…” rings in the ears. It’s catchy and shows Kele is not afraid to, well, walk tall.
Rise, another stand out, evolves into an electronic delight after a slow start.
But there are some disappointing low-lights. On The Lam is a terrible Garage Nation ’99 track that failed to make the cut while Everything You Wanted is a non-starter, even with the welcome didgeridoo throughout and New Rules tries too hard to be a difficult listen.
Kele’s talents cannot be denied and he has every reason to produce a confident LP for his first solo effort but it fails to deliver something that will be relived, say, more than a handful times.
There are a few highlights – and I say few – but the album drags and is a mishmash of thoughtful, yet hollow, ideas. Some will say it’s pretentious muck but I won’t go that far.
Better luck next time.