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

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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

Follow me on Twitter: @AugustBrown

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