In the years since Bloc Party came storming onto the scene with 2005 debut Silent Alarm, Kele Okereke has occasionally stepped away from the band to release material under his own name. And with Bloc Party in nostalgia mode these days, he’s moving full speed ahead with his solo career. Bloc Party haven’t released an album since 2016’s Hymns, but Kele is about to follow up 2017’s largely acoustic Fatherland with a quite different solo effort called 2042.

The album is dropping in November on Kele’s own KOLA label, and today we hear its opening track, “Jungle Bunny.” Musically it’s a tight, jittery dance-rocker that reminds me of Bloc Party if they’d taken inspiration from the same African pop groups that informed Talking Heads circa Remain In Light. What really grabbed my attention, though, are the lyrics. Kele goes off here. First: “He’s gone full Ye, and he’s starting to feel like shit might pop off.” And then: “The policeman said he’d been a fan as he slapped the cuffs onto my wrists/ The security did not fuck around when they bounced my black ass from the club.” And then: “So quit it with the coonery/ The japes and the tomfoolery/ Shucking and jiving in your video/ Like no one was gonna know.” The man takes no prisoners on this one.

In a press release, he elaborates, “There is a history of black entertainers feeling that after they have achieved a certain level of success that they are above discussions of race but that idea is a delusion. As a person of colour living in the western world, it does not matter how much wealth one accumulates, race will follow you wherever you go. With JUNGLE BUNNY I wanted explore this idea: In a time of such rampant division and public racism, what is the responsibility of the black entertainer?”

With songs titled “St. Kaepernick Wept” and “Natural Hair,” it seems like Kele will continue exploring such issues across the album. In the meantime, hear “Jungle Bunny” below.

TRACKLIST:
1 “JUNGLE BUNNY”
2 “PAST LIVES INTERLUDE”
3 “LET ENGLAND BURN”
4 “ST KAEPERNICK WEPT”
5 “GUAVA RUBICON”
6 “MY BUSINESS”
7 “CEILING GAMES”
8 “WHERE SHE CAME FROM INTERLUDE”
9 “BETWEEN ME AND MY MAKER”
10 “NATURAL HAIR “
11 “CYRIL’S BLOOD”
12 “SECRETS WEST 29TH “
13 “CATCHING FEELINGS”
14 “A DAY OF NATIONAL SHAME INTERLUDE”
15 “OCEAN VIEW”
16 “BACK BURNER”

2042 is out 11/8 on KOLA. Pre-order it here.

CREDIT: Asia Werbel