(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Tommy Keene (born in Maryland, initiated into rock in Washington, and finally transplanted to Los Angeles) has been, since 1982, the lyrical poet of that modern pop school begun in the 1970s by the Raspberries and Big Star, and legitimized in the 1980s by Shoes and DBs; that kind of heavenly polyphony that compresses layers of melodies, vocal counterpoints, and rising chords into three minutes.
After his first album, Strange Alliance (Avenue, 1982), still raw but already establishing the extremes of his romantic anxiety, 1984 brought two EPs that became cult classics: Back Again (Dolphin), which contained Back Again and Safe In The Light, and Places That Are Gone (Dolphin), which included Places That Are Gone and his masterpiece, Back To Zero Now. The Real Underground (Alias, 1993) revisits the six songs from Places That Are Gone and the two classics from Back Again, alongside various rarities.
Keene seemed destined to become a star; instead, two less successful albums followed, such as Songs From The Film (Geffen, 1986), which contains the semi-hit Listen to Me (as well as another version of Places That Are Gone), and Based On Happy Times (Geffen, 1989), where he presented himself as a cross between the Replacements and Tom Petty (When Our Vows Break).
Love Is A Dangerous Thing and Alive on the EP Sleeping On A Roller Coaster (Matador, 1993) brought him back to his humble but sincere origins as a pop craftsman.
Ten Years After (Matador, 1995) thus picked up the thread abandoned ten years earlier, with Keene as the provincial pop craftsman, championing simplicity and honesty (Going Out Again, Your Heart Beats Alone, Compromise).
Keene earns his living by playing guitar for Paul Westerberg and the Velvet Crush. Between tours he plays and records (almost entirely solo) Isolation Party (Matador, 1998), one of his happiest and simultaneously most commercial works, opened by Long Time Missing and Getting Out From Under You, and completed with the catchy choruses of The World Outside, Battle Lines, and Waiting Without You.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
Showtunes (Parasol, 2001) is a live album that also works as a career
retrospective.
Like the Beatles before him, Keene's melodic art at its peak discovered the
format of the operetta. The 17-minute The Final Hour, the centerpiece of
The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down (Spinart, 2002), is a compendium of
Keene's career disguised as a rock opera. It features some of his most
memorable refrains and the mature, warm, suave mood of a master.
Drowning (Not Lame, 2004) is a collection of rarities.
You Hear Me (2010) is a career retrospective.
In The Late Bright (2009) and
Behind the Parade (Second Motion, 2011) changed very little from the
vintage guitar-pop formula, the latter offering
Deep Six Saturday and
Behind the Parade.
Tommy Keene died in 2017 at the age of 59.
