Review: Kele Okereke’s ‘Trick’ full of smart, contemporary club sounds

Bloc Party’s 2012 comeback album, “Four,” mostly did away with the dance music elements that the London band helped popularize in the mid-2000s. Out with the four-four kicks and club atmospheres; in with the psych-stoner guitar shredding.

Frontman Kele Okereke’s new solo album, “Trick,” must have been where all those danceable ideas went to regroup. The album is a very well-produced survey of smart, contemporary club sounds ranging from down-tempo techno to Burial’s bleary after-hours dubstep. But there’s a hope and lightness to the mood that sets it apart from Kele’s more nihilist electronic-music peers.

“Closer” smoothly shifts gears from a lonely electric guitar line to effervescent, hands-up diva house. “Like We Used To” creates drama out of intimacy — close-miked vocal whispers, subtle shifts in reverbs that feel like grand gestures. “Coasting” wrings out Kele’s best falsetto yet, and while nothing on “Trick” feels incredibly urgent or revelatory, it’s a rare late-night album that assumes you’ll wake up next to someone you actually like.

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Kele

“Trick”

Lilac

Two and a half stars

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