In 2018 and 2019, the British formation, which only has two original members, replayed on tour its entire first album, "Silent alarm" (2005), that of revelation and consecration.

A real bath of youth, as explained by Kele Okereke, singer and guitarist, met by AFP in Paris.

"Playing those old songs reminded me of the energy of the Silent Alarm era. It influenced us, not to do the same thing - I don't like to look at the past - but to show us where we should go", he exposes, dreadlocks under red cap, mint green vest streaked with black.

"Alpha games", which comes out this Friday, allows the listener to go back to the roller coaster, like 17 years ago.

With this deaf tension of the first titles "Day drinker" and "Traps" which springs in geyser in the last seconds of "Rough justice".

The abrasive approach of this 6th disc also comes from the political climate of recent years in the United Kingdom and beyond.

"As a lyricist, I have long tried to keep a positive angle, to put a little pink, including on hurtful things, but the world has changed, especially since Trump", asserts the artist.

"The optimist and dreamer in me is a bit dead".

"A racist, a pig"

Brexit has thus indirectly inspired "Alpha games".

"The United Kingdom was preparing to leave the European Union and it was chaos in our Parliament during the writing of the album. I did not want to talk about politics, nor to be didactic, but I talk about those who lie eye to eye".

No need to pronounce the name of Boris Johnson, Kele Okereke comes there alone, without ever mentioning him.

"I'm disgusted with what our government is doing and the prime minister is an ugly fucking pig, a liar."

"How to explain to your child that the person in charge is a liar, a racist, a pig? How to believe in the system of what has become of the United Kingdom?", He continues in a calm tone of speaker.

British singer Kele Okereke, leader of the Bloc Party group, in Paris on April 6, 2022 BERTRAND GUAY AFP

Boris Johnson is currently entangled in the "Partygate", a party scandal at 10 Downing Street during confinement.

And Kele Okereke, an Englishman with Nigerian parents, does not forget that he was singled out for having written in 2018, when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs, an article in which he compared Muslim women wearing the full veil to " mailboxes" or "bank robbers".

Teeth behind the petals

We also ask the singer how he explains the disruptions of the world to his 5-year-old daughter and his 2-year-old son, in his homoparental family.

"At home, we try to preserve them, they must remain children. There is a war at the moment in Ukraine and it is very uncomfortable to talk to them about it".

Geopolitics and its betrayals are reflected in the album by the theme of pretense, as in "Rough justice", where a certain jet-set could well hide sinister criminals.

"As in the novel + Glamorama + by Bret Easton Ellis where the models were terrorists, the public face / private face side interests me", he deciphers.

In "Kreuzberg", song from the 2nd album "A weekend in the city", Kele Okereke, then 25 years old, cried in the Berlin metro, his heart in pieces after yet another loving manipulation.

Now, at 40, as he sings in "Callum is a snake", he knows how to sniff out toxic relationships and detect the teeth behind the petals.

The message is also carried from the cover of the album, with a carnivorous plant in a pretty flashy pink, a metaphor for the threats behind an innocent appearance.

© 2022 AFP