Back again from my little trip and I'm starting things off with an album review. This one is the solo album done by Kele Okereke the singer of one of my favorite bands Bloc Party. I heard he was doing a solo thing, so because his previous work didn't scare me off (quite the opposite actually) I decided to listen to it. I was later horrified by what I heard. I didn't finish this album, I couldn't bring myself to listen to all of it since it was just so drastically different from what I expected and what I deem "good."
Now I know the first rule of solo projects, NEVER COMPARE IT TO THE ARTIST'S GROUP WORK. And yes, I do tend to tread on this rule because my expectations for Kele are also my expectations for Bloc Party. There are some songs on this album that do not completely repulse me, like the single Tenderoni and Rise. The lyrics are good, he has always been good with words in his songs. It's just the sound of the music that bothers me the most. All electro-metrosexual pop indie bullshit and not a single instrument to remedy it. Now, I don't mind electro sounds or anything but I do not think they should be the sole sound coming in. It needs complementary assistance, be it the guitar/drums/bass of Bloc Party of something else entirely.
I personally do not approve of Kele's move here, going solo is far from a good idea in my mind. However, I am quite biased seeing as how I am quite a Bloc Party fan. I do however recommend that if you are a fan of Bloc Party, at least giving it a try first. Apparently, some people actually like this a lot instead people like me who find some tracks OK and the rest total shit.
I actually don't know what you're complaining about. Bloc Party has been steadily moving towards a much more electro sound since the first album. I don't mind most of the tracks I've listened to, though of course none of them have quite the zing of Bloc Party stuff. He's not my favorite vocalist of all time, but I am moderately interested in electronica so I don't mind hearing a bit of autotune.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy some electronica myself and I can understand where you are coming from when you say that this band has been moving toward that kind of sound for a long time coming, but the difference between this and Bloc Party that I can't get over is the fact that it's all electronic. Even though their last album, Intimacy had several synthesized sounds in tracks like Mercury and Ion Square, there was still the healthy sounds of Guitar and Drums that kept it Bloc Party. There was no sort of sound coming from this album and to be blunt, made it sound like pop rubbish. In other words, there's just no balance.
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