Latest news with #ILY
Irish Independent
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
TV on the Radio frontman and Star Wars actor Tunde Adebimpe delivers a slice of slanted and enchanted indie
TV on the Radio are no longer a going concern but frontman Tunde Adebimpe has just released his debut solo album. Thee Black Boltz retains much of the eclecticism that made his old band so appealing to those who like their indie slanted and enchanted. Even at a mere 35 minutes long, there's a cornucopia of ideas and genres. Adebimpe, whose varied career includes stop-motion animation and acting (his latest TV gig is Star Wars: Skeleton Crew) is a compelling presence on these 11 songs. The urgent Magnetic, all fuzzy guitars and synths, finds him 'thinking about the human race in the age of tenderness and rage' while the stark, arresting Drop is a beatbox masterclass. A jaunty giddiness characterises many of the songs, but it is clear that pain is being exorcised. The playful, upbeat stylings of God Knows cannot disguise the fact that he's singing about a relationship that's gone badly awry. 'God knows you're the worst thing I've ever loved/ You're bad news but we've still got to have our fun.' And, on the tender ballad ILY, he sings about his younger sister who died during the pandemic. It's heartbreaking: 'Tell me that the end is not the end.' Co-written with the album's producer Wilder Zoby — who is probably best known for his collaborations with hip-hop duo Run the Jewels — it's the album's most conventionally structured song, but once heard, difficult to forget. Unlike TV on the Radio, Beirut are still going, but then that act was all about the talents of Zach Condon rather than a grouping of like-minded subversives. Condon's first couple of (Balkans-inspired) albums coincided with Adebimpe's band's much heralded early run and, despite the odd wobble, he's kept the quality high. His latest, A Study of Losses, is typically unconventional. Commissioned by a Swedish acrobatic troupe — of all things — it features 11 songs and seven instrumentals. Sophisticated, textured arrangements elevate the likes of Forest Encyclopaedia, which features Condon's sombre, sorrowful singing. A highlight, Caspian Tiger, has a hymnal quality, a wonderful vocal delivery, and a confluence of strings, artfully arranged by Clarice Jensen, artistic director of the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. It's an album to get lost in.
The Guardian
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Tunde Adebimpe: Thee Black Boltz review – a sparkling solo debut
You would not know, on first listen, that this effervescent debut solo album by the sometime frontman of TV on the Radio was steeped in grief. Tunde Adebimpe's sister died during the pandemic when these songs were taking hesitant shape in an LA studio that Adebimpe, now a successful actor, shares with multi-instrumentalist and co-producer Wilder Zoby. Those difficult feelings – and others, about living in 'a time of tenderness and rage' – became snaggle-toothed synth-punk cuts and bouncy synth-pop sounds. On Drop, there's beat-boxing; on The Most, a Sleng Teng reggae riddim ambush; while on Somebody New, you can hear a punk-funk echo of New Order. Only ILY, a finger-picked folk song addressed to his sister, breaks character, adding 'balladeer' to Adebimpe's varied CV (former stop-motion animator, illustrator). 'How'd you get so low?' asks God Knows, a perky, doo-wop-adjacent song about a flailing relationship. Everything about Adebimpe's magnetic presence fronting of one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the 00s is present and correct on Thee Black Boltz: his warm fluency, wistful anger and genre versatility. But his pop instincts have come to the fore on these 11 streamlined songs; witness Magnetic, one of the best things he's ever done.
