Kele Okereke, frontman of the British punk outfit Bloc Party, has announced a new album entitled The Waves Pt. 1, available on May 28. The album is the singer’s fifth as a solo artist, under the name Kele, and was announced along with the release of a new single “Smalltown Boy.”

The singer created the album under isolation which affected so many people during the time of the pandemic. After the disruption of Okereke’s plans to create his second musical with Lyric Theatre due to the aforementioned global crisis, the artist found himself at home with “the desire to create.” He shared further, “I knew I had to fill in the space of this record entirely by myself, which was daunting but also very liberating. This album is literally the sound of me.”

The Waves Pt. 1 was created entirely by Okereke through his label KOLA Records/!K7 and is infused with inspiration from classical music and film scores. The lyrics of Okereke’s new work are the result of an endeavor to deepen the content of the message of his songs. The album is now available for pre-order through Okereke’s Bandcamp.

Okereke’s previous solo release was his 2020 release 2042, which enveloped a wide array of topics from politics to personal tracks. Kele had performed in a six-show tour as part of Bloc Party shortly before releasing 2042, in which the band played their debut album Silent Alarm in honor of the album’s 15 year anniversary.

MXDWN interviewed Okereke along with the rest of Bloc Party before their 2016 concert at Empire Control Room and Garage, and the discussion ranged from the strangest experiences the band had performing at SXSW, insight on the creation of their 2016 release Hymns, and the general worldview of Okereke.

The Waves Pt. 1 Tracklist:
1. Message From The Spirit World
2. They Didn’t See It Coming
3. The Way We Live Now
4. How To Beat The Lie Detector
5. Dungeness
6. Ninevah
7. The One Who Held You Up
8. The Patriots
9. Intention
10. Smalltown Boy
11. From A Place Of Love
12. The Heart Of The Wave
13. Cradle You (Bonus Track)

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat