The Boxer Packing Punches

So I'm listening to The Boxer and I decided at 5:39 in the morning that I would listen to the entire album back and forth. I've realized that I might just contradict my first blog post in which I made this album so horrible. In truth, its absolutely beautiful. The reason why: Kele's lyricism is so personal it's astounding. Truly, I gave him too little credit about being a solo artist, but before I decided to write about The Boxer years' (because I'm not going to lie, when I heard "Tenderoni" and "Rise", I had originally thought of them as words with beats that I could've just as easily made on a trail version of Fruity Loops), I decided I should listen to the whole album first.

After listening, my interpretation of this album was that it's all about Romance, Sexuality, and Growth, and Inspiration. For instance, in the song "The Other Side", Kele brings in the conflict of religion and something else, which you can take however you like I suppose, as he starts off with "Lord, oh lord why can't you hear me? I'm calling out your name, yeah/It's been so long since i've heard your voice/It's driving me insane, yeah", followed by a second verse of "A victim of consequence or vicitm of a nurture/I've been faithful I've been kind but/still you will not answer/I am turning into the man I used to be/It's driving me insane, yeah".

His single, "Tenderoni" is probably one of the most interesting of his songs on the album, being that tenderoni' is a slang term for someone's love interest in someone else who is too young. Although never released on Silent Alarm, the B-side for "Helicopter", "Little Thoughts", appeared to be about the same thing given away with lines like "If it's cause my age then your a coward" and "Ill go back if you ask" and it makes you feel the way he feels because 3 albums later, it still appears that he's talking ablout this someone and it makes listening to Kele that much more interesting. Truly his lyrics pop out and appear to be so real, not even because one feels like they can relate to them, but because of the way he combines imagery with feelings and emotions in a single line.

My biggest concern though however isn't the album. Overall I give it a 7.5 anyways. My biggest fear is how will it translate live. After seeing the setlist, which is only ten songs deep (the show actually comprises of 12 songs), I really don't think it will be that fantastic. For Starters, The Boxer hasn't been exposed in the U.S. that well so it makes me wonder if people will buy it (not the album, the performance). Two I feel like the show doesn't really start until the medley of Bloc Party covers which consist of "Blue Light", "The Prayer", and "One More Chance", all of which are great songs. But even then, the mellowed out version of "Blue Light" is nothing like what people remember and even though its a great idea to get Bloc Party fans into the show, its a far different version from the original and doesn't extract the same intensity as a dance tune. After the Medley will come "Tenderoni" and "Rise" and then I'm predicting a very out of place encore that leads to only two more songs. Kele comes to the 9:30 club September 2nd and I'm not buying tickets until I know if someone's seeing it with me. Listen to the album and let me know if your interested soon.
Check out the "Tenderoni" music video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdQioZHYpvQ