Audio CD review:
Tommy Keene - The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down

Tommy Keene - The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down

Band: Tommy Keene Title: The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down Rating: Release Date: 04 June, 2002 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Begin Where We End 2: The Man Without A Soul 3: Hanging Over My Head 4: All Your Love Will Stay 5: Technicolor 6: Big Blue Sky 7: The Final Hour 8: Time Will Take You Today 9: The World Where I Still Live 10: How Do You Really Say Hello? 11: Circumstance 12: The Fog Has Lifted

Customer Reviews Pretty weak But an album this weak probably should not have included "broke down" as part of its title. I'm a huge Keene fan, and I have nothing but respect for the diligence he's shown througout his career, putting out pretty much nothing but great music despite almost no commercial success. How often have you found yourself saying "I just wish Artist X would put out more of the stuff they do best. That first album rocked! Why'd they have to go and change?" Well, Tommy Keene's pretty much written the same song for the last 20 years, unaffected by (or uninterested in) new ideas in pop music. He's never gone through a "lo-fi" phase, he's never recorded a song with a string quartet, he's never dabbled with unusual instruments, he's barely ever recorded a song without drum and bass parts. Man, he's almost never strayed from 4/4 time and a medium-tempo beat in 20 years! Don't get me wrong, the man's a genius on par with any American pop songwriter and he's found subtleties in power-pop that no other artist has. But on this record the craftsmanship and dedication comes across more like necrophilia. It's obvious he can basically just show up, plug in, and crank this stuff out. Lyrically and melodically, the entire thing is totally average. Even the presence of new faces (Jay Bennett ex of Wilco, for one) can't seem to shake Keene's sound up. There are some utterly cringeworthy low points here that are easily the worst of Keene's entire recorded output. "Man without a Soul" is an awful attempt at a swingin' number. You can hear how awkward the style is for everyone involved: the drummer can't restrain himself, and Keene's vocal just keeps wanting to slip into tuneful-pop-singing-guy mode. Other songs are simply unmemorable; the "epic" "The Final Hour" is a tedious jumble of ideas with zero coherence. Keene jilts the jangle It was a pretty nice balance, really, on the sensational "Isolation Party" and the pretty strong "Ten Years After. Tommy Keene's recent albums have displayed an amiable battle between a fuzzed-up, poppy roar and a keen (!)jangle. " With "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" I think we can declare a winner. Fuzz-buzz rock wins. Keene's new one on spinART mostly avoids the strum and jangle in favor of thick power. While this works some of the time, "Merry-Go-Round" is not, in truth, very close to the quality of the last studio effort, "Isolation Party. " It's always hard to explain how someone can go from absolute creative peak to average with one album. Oh well, this new one is still pretty good, even with its flaws: Keene's melodies, especially in the first half, are just too similar and the songs blend together; his lyric rhymes are even more obvious than usual; the disc isn't especially well recorded; a little too much buzzy-fuzzy rock. Still, the 16-plus minute "The Final Hour", a rock suite of sorts, is great fun and showcases some fine guitar, and the terrific "Time Will Take You Today," which follows it, is heartening. Pretty good, then, but samey, a bit too overpowering and not a disc I can imagine anyone EVER saying is Keene's best (though some have already hinted at this). I don't think Keene can make a bad record; he hasn't here, but the brilliance of "Isolation Party" may have set the bar too high. Beginning Where We Ended I pay attention to music more than words, so I became a Keene fan practically after the first power chord I heard on Isolation Party, his last album. Tommy Keene is one of the most underappreciated songwriters in the underappreciated genre of power pop. This new album even surpasses that - it has an even brighter feel and is more adventurous. The orchestration is more elaborate than anything he's done before - ethereal keyboard embellishments (courtesy of Jay Bennett - formerly of Wilco) and horn sections (occassionally recalling Psychedelic Furs circa Mirror Moves. There's also a 16-minute epic song that's good all the way through (unheard of for a pop songwriter). Keene is a phenomenal guitar player, extremely rhythmic and angular, though he can be blustery and driving as well, like a Bob Stinson. Chiming arpeggiated chords recall Roger McGuinn in his Byrds heyday, and explosive power chords invoke the spirit of Pete Townshend (before he became a self-parody and continued to sing about wanting to die before growing old). Solos are brilliant - there's a minimalism involved - he doesn't try to be Eddie Van Halen, instead hitting just the right soaring notes. And as a songwriter, his songs take surprising turns, never remaining too predictable. There's always a cinematic quality to everything he does, a key element of his lyrical imagery. To me, his songs also evoke images of the unlimited possiblilities of youth, blue skies - and he sings them in a simple pop style that focuses on melody. And he's great live - he's touring later this summer and usually hits a lot of cities, so don't miss him!. . You can see a complete list of all Tommy Keene discography, or go back to the Tommy Keene tabs