Tommy Keene has never sounded better
When last we met Mr. Keene, on 2013’s Excitement at Your Feet, he displayed unerring taste in cover songs, and a knack for applying his own sound without obscuring the sources. Two years later he’s back with a new set of original songs, and while the covers album left Keene to write this album from scratch – no leftover material and no jump-starting a return to the studio with a resurrection of an earlier work – the album builds on both his trademark sound, and his sojourn through other people’s songbooks. Keene’s guitars and vocals have never sounded better, and the overall mood of the album retains the irrepressible excitement of early works like Places That Are Gone.
Keene has never shied away from his primary influences – the Beatles, Byrds, Big Star and Who – but even his earliest records sounded distinctly like Tommy Keene, rather than his forerunners. The title track may make you nostalgic for Big Star’s “Feel,†but the reference creates a new, shared experience rather than a retreat to the origin. The same is true for the echoes of “Dear Prudence†in the six-and-a-half minute closer, “All Gone Away,†with Keene’s guitars and John Richardson’s drums stretching out as if they’re jamming side one of Abbey Road to a close. Thirty years of record making has sustained, but not really changed Keene’s approach, making this a must-have for longtime fans and a great starting point for newbies. [©2015 Hyperbolium] 