One of the great minor sagas of last fall was the possibly sad tale of Kele Okereke, lead singer of British indie band Bloc Party, who spotted his fellow band members enter a rehearsal space without him (Okereke having issued arguably the second-saddest greeting in music history, after Lionel Richie's).
The band blamed the Okereke-less rehearsal on his solo career, which they said was sidelining him enough to make them consider hiring a new lead singer. Okereke claimed "a big part of me is laughing HARD at all of this," which of course meant the opposite. The Simpsons got involved, and it wasn't clear if Bloc Party had patched up or broken up or if the whole thing had been a stunt.
But now we have reason to believe everything settled for the best, based on news, once again, from Okereke himself. Speaking to Zane Lowe on BBC's Radio 1 this morning, Okereke promised a fourth Bloc Party album to release later this year, featuring himself on lead vocals. According to the BBC, Okereke said the band has already recorded two new songs and completed demos for 17 other tracks, all of them "lean and very tough."
So far, the band has not confirmed or denied the news on its official site. This would be their first album since 2008's Intimacy, and their first joint project since touring for Intimacy in 2009.
You can listen to the full interview here.
WATCH the video for Okereke's "What Did I Do?" off his 2011 solo EP The Hunter:
[via Reddit]