“The product of lockdown recording and late-night walks through London, the Bloc Party frontman’s fifth solo album is as low-key and eccentric as he’s ever sounded.”
“a meditative pandemic-induced experiment”
“Why does Kele’s cover of Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy sound so defeated? The towering original is a heady swirl of fear, alienation and yearning, buttressed by the steely, driving determination of its drum machine. It ends in escape, with that galvanising “run away” refrain. Yet the Bloc Party frontman only plays to the song’s fragility, so his self-pitying wallow takes away the rhythm and ends on”
