Kele Goes Solo

Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke is branching out on his own and releasing a solo album while the band takes a break. It will be called The Boxer.

According to Pitchfork: "Kele teamed up with Spank Rock producer XXXChange to make an album of electronic pop. In a press release about the album, Kele said, "The key for the sound of the record was to take things as harsh and as physical as I could make it." Yikes. This could be great, or really, really awful. Guess we'll have to wait til June 14, when the first single "Tenderoni" is dropped, to judge for ourselves.

The Results of Intimacy

"We hoped Bloc Party's last record, A Weekend in the City, would be the group's version of U2's October-- an endearingly awkward transition between a bracing debut and a masterpiece every bit as outsized as the ambitions of its creators. Sadly, album number three is less War than Evil Urges."

Wow! Slam to Bloc Party AND My Morning Jacket in one sentence! Read the entire Pitchfork review here, where you can also find a slam to The Smashing Pumpkins.

Bloc Party Suddenly Release New Album

Bloc Party announced today that they will be releasing a new album, Intimacy, on THURSDAY. (Nice work keeping that one a secret!) I'm not a huge fan of the new single 'Trojan Horse'. Their press release says "Some songs are Bloc Party at their most wildly experimental, while other tracks are simply classic Bloc Party, fitting in seamlessly amongst fan-favourites 'Helicopter', 'Banquet' and 'So Here We Are'." but 'Trojan Horse' sounds a little more Weekend In The City than Silent Alarm to me. Hopefully the rest of the album will sound more like their other new single 'Mercury'. I guess we'll find out Thursday...