''The Boxer'' is the debut solo album by

Kele Okereke Rowland Kelechukwu Okereke (born 13 October 1981), also known mononymously as Kele, is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the indie rock band Bloc Party. Early life Okere ...

, the lead singer of British

indie rock Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...

band

Bloc Party Bloc Party are an English rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Louise Bartle ( ...

. Okereke released the album under the professional name of Kele on 21 June 2010. As promotion, he uploaded the songs "Rise" and "Walk Tall" to his personal website on 13 May. The first single from ''The Boxer'' was " Tenderoni", released on 14 June, and the second, " Everything You Wanted", on 16 August. The album's third single " On the Lam" was released on 25 October. The album was released by Wichita Recordings worldwide, except for the US and Canada (

Glassnote Records Glassnote Records (also known as Glassnote Entertainment Group LLC) is a record label that was launched by American music executive Daniel Glass in 2007. The label primarily has a lineup of indie rock and alternative rock artists, most notably M ...

), Australia (a co-release with Shock Records an
Co-Op
and Japan (a co-release with Hostess Entertainment). Vinyl copies of the album were released by Wichita and

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States ...

. The digital and Japanese versions of the album included bonus tracks and remixes in addition to the standard 10 tracks.

Critical reception

''The Boxer'' received generally favourable reviews from critics, currently holding an aggregate score of 70 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. It received very positive reviews from

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

(4/5), Clash (8/10), MusicOMH (4.5/5) and The A.V. Club (B+).

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the ...

. *

– lead vocals, songwriting, art direction

Additional musicians

* Jodie Scantlebury – backing vocals (tracks 2, 4, 6, 8 and 9) * Bobbie Gordon – backing vocals (tracks 2, 4, 8 and 9)

Production

* XXXChange – production,

audio mixing Audio mixing is the process by which multiple sounds are combined into one or more channels. In the process, a source's volume level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated or enhanced. This practical, aesthetic ...

(tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 9 and 10), recording * Chris Coady – mixing (track 3) * Phillipe Zdar – mixing (tracks 5, 7 and 8) * Ben Jackson – recording * Scott McCormick – recording * Mike Marsh – mastering

Design

* Sarah Piantadosi – photography * Richard Robinson –

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

* Nova Dando – art direction

Publishing

* Wichita Recordings – publishing * Shock Records – publishing *

– publishing * Hostess Entertainment – publishing *

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

– publishing

Release history

Charts

Album

Singles

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boxer, The 2010 debut albums Wichita Recordings albums Shock Records albums Kele Okereke albums Albums produced by XXXChange