Kele shares new single ‘Someone To Make Me Laugh’
Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke has shared his new single, ‘Someone To Make Me Laugh’.
The new song is a single taken from Okereke’s forthcoming solo album, The Flames Pt. 2, which is set for release on February 24th through Kola Records. Kele announced the project last month with ‘Vandal’, and now the tender, ‘Someone To Make Me Laugh’, has arrived as the follow-up. On the melancholic track, Okereke cries out for “no more sneering” and begs to be healed.
Kele asks on the new single: “Can you fix a problem that you did not make? Can you mend a heart that you did not break? Oh I just need someone to make me laugh”. In a press statement, the Bloc Party frontman commented of the track: “In its simplest form it’s about looking back at one’s life and trying to fight the cynicism that seems to be taking hold. Although the song is mined from painful memories, ultimately it is about combating loneliness in one’s life.”
Meanwhile, of the album, Kele said: “Fire is powerful, it is both creation and destruction and I wanted that tension to somehow be reflected in the music. the sound of being consumed by our desires, of feelings burning so intensely that they literally burn out. Like The Waves it was important that all the sounds of the record were made by my electric guitar. Writing and recording a record within these parameters has forced me to become more creative as a musician, from the looped ambient textures to the brittle drum machine rhythms. it’s all made by my guitar and my loop pedals, and that’s how it will be performed.”
The Flames pt. 2 arrives as the successor to The Waves pt. 1, which was released in 2021 after being recorded during lockdown. Far Out’s review of the album commented: “Throughout the album, Kele is looking to minimise anything that could clutter up the new life he’s worked hard to establish, but that deconstructive spirit never feels recidivist or devolutionary. Instead, we get a portrait of a man searching for new meanings and new answers. A new, better Kele. The Waves Pt. 1 seems to indicate that he’s well on the path to finding it.”
In April, Okereke will support Paramore across the United Kingdom on an arena tour with Bloc Party, which includes a performance at London’s O2 Arena. The two bands will also tour the United States together in the summer.
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