Kele - The Boxer

7.5/10

I was introduced to Bloc Party just a couple of years ago, and ended up really liking their stuff. I haven't listened to them in a while, though. This album, the lead singer's solo debut, didn't get too much hype or promotion (at least not that I saw) and I had a feeling it might end up being really great. Unfortunately, I didn't end up liking it all that much.

The album is 10 songs, about 45min long, and instantly much more electronic-sounding and slow-paced than a lot of Bloc Party's stuff. The synthy/electro vibe kind of reminded me of Thom Yorke's solo album, The Eraser, and how much more laid back and electronic that was than a lot of Radiohead stuff. But, as the album progressed, I ended up seeing the album as more of a bad attempt at being Kele's own Eraser album than something different and unique. Lyrically, there were too many songs with almost no verses. Several songs just had a repeating chorus, with the production seeming like the forefront, which didn't make sense to me since this is supposed to be the singer's solo album. With that said, I did really like a lot of the production. It was really catchy at points, and kept me moving along with the music. I just expected something more. Track 2, "On The Lam", has a great, catchy beat and chorus, but there are hardly any words outside of the chorus, which is really disappointing. The single, and third track, "Tenderoni", is also a good song and really catchy, except the part where they shout/spell out T-E-N-D-E-R-O-N-I, which is just incredibly lame and cheesy. My favorite track is Everything You Wanted, which falls right in the middle of the album. There are finally real verses with good lyrics. The main thing that stood out about the song, for me, was the emotion that was clearly behind it. You could feel the heart in the song, which I really liked. "All The Things I Could Never Say" is also really good, yet somehow helped to show me how weak the album was at points. The second to last track, it's the first one where I really felt like the production was secondary and helped to highlight the singing instead of the other way around. Overall, I just felt like it was a very mediocre/average album. There were definitely a few really strong tracks, but I just think it fell short as a whole. It is definitely still worth listening to, for anyone interested.