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Jul 03, 2025 Web Exclusive By Scotty Dransfield

For two decades, Tunde Adebimpe’s voice has been one of the most distinctive in indie rock—reedy and punky, yet full of deep soul—and on Thee Black Boltz, his first true solo album, it’s front and center. Best known as the co-founder and frontman of TV on the Radio, Adebimpe steps out on his own here without stepping too far away from the band’s sonic palette. In fact, much of Thee Black Boltz sounds like a spiritual cousin to later TV on the Radio albums like Seeds and Nine Types of Light, albeit with softer edges and a more introspective touch.

The album’s emotional center is grief and resilience—Adebimpe began writing after the pandemic and in the wake of his younger sister’s death. That tension between loss and hope surfaces most powerfully on “Drop,” a sparse ballad that gradually builds with layered textures and beatboxed percussion until it swells into a quietly radiant climax. It’s the best song here, capturing a fragile but determined kind of transcendence: “Cast an extraordinary spell / And rise into the night.”

There are hits and misses—tracks like “Pinstack” and “ILY” feel more like filler than essential cuts—but Adebimpe commits to every performance, and even the weaker songs have strong bones. “Magnetic,” “Somebody New,” and “Streetlight Nuevo” bring grit, bounce, and a melodic charge. “The Most” even dips into dub territory with surprising flair.

This isn’t a dramatic reinvention, and it probably doesn’t try to be. Thee Black Boltz doesn’t escape the shadow of TV on the Radio so much as illuminate the parts of Adebimpe that were always quietly pulsing underneath. It’s a human record, full of searching and survival. A solid debut that invites us into his private storm—and finds a little lightning of its own. (www.tundeadebimpe.bandcamp.com)

Author rating: 7/10