ALBUM REVIEW: KELE – The Flames Pt. 2

KOLA Records/!K7

Released: 24.03.23

Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke has always used his solo work for his more experimental ventures and that’s the case again, with the layered loops and hyperactive beats of tracks like Reckless commonplace.

It works more often than not like on the folksy funk of True Love Knows No Death and it’s lyrical observations on everyday life and the quite wonderful poppy Someone To Make Me Laugh which is Kele at his most heartfelt. But there’s too much filler here, like the repetitive No Risk No Reward whilst He Was Never The Same Again is half genius half frustrating annoyance with its attempts to put on record feelings of PTSD. It’s clever, but like PTSD, you don’t want to experience it again.