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Keene Brothers - Blues and Boogie Shoes (Fading Captain Series)
3 June 2006
KEENE BROTHERS’ Blues and Boogie Shoes is not the most exciting of the three new albums ROBERT POLLARD released in May (that would be the compact, imaginative Turn to Red by THE TAKEOVERS), and it’s not the most eccentric (that’s definitely PSYCHO AND THE BIRDS’ All That Is Holy), but it is the most interesting, and perhaps ultimately the most rewarding.
Pollard and TOMMY KEENE—the ‘brothers’ behind the album—don’t seem like they’d be likely candidates for a collaboration, yet their music certainly has connecting points, particularly each one’s knack for pure pop melody. The success of this album comes from them finding that point of connection, and following it. The resulting work seems unique in the discographies of both musicians, taking them in a direction that’s somewhat new for them, though not necessarily for music history.
“Maybe it’s not so bad,” Pollard sings on one song (“This Time Do You Feel It?”), and those words encapsulate the general tone of the album—hope with a touch of melancholy. Even though the album opens with a big, vigorous pop-rock anthem with a great hook, “Evil vs. Evil,” and there are some rather standard bar-band guitar riffs and solos here and there, the general direction of the album is favors soft but strident ballads.
Pollard wrote a doozy of a power ballad back in 1999, GUIDED BY VOICES’ “Hold on Hope,” and has been publicly regretting it ever since. Blues and Boogie Shoes sounds like he’s come to terms with that side of his songwriting, and refined it so that most of the songs resemble less-literal, more-ambiguous versions of a “Hold on Hope”-style ballad. And that’s a beautiful thing, as both Pollard and Keene have, erm, keen melodic senses, and when Pollard embraces both the surrealist and the emotional sides of his songs, he tends to create his best works. Thist isn’t his best, but it’s quite rewarding.
Blues and Boogie Shoes is one of the least straightforward albums Keene has made, and is easily the most straightforward, bordering-on-conventional, album that Pollard has ever made. It’s this balancing act that has led to a certain type of magic—not groundbreaking, but truly satisfying.
Dave Heaton’s Top 10
Week of January 31
Forward and Back
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The Electric Pop Group – Seconds (Matinee)
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The Magnetic Fields – Realism (Nonesuch)
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Laura Gibson and Ethan Rose – Bridge Carols (Holocene)
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Circus Devils – Mother Skinny (Rockathon)
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Girls – Album (True Panther Sounds)
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Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs (Matador)
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Brad Paisley – American Saturday Night (Arista Nashville)
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The Clientele – Bonfires on the Heath (Merge)
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Peter Broderick and Machinefabriek – Blank Grey Canvas Sky (Fang Bomb)
Comments
Im a huge Pollard fan and to me this is one of his best releases and on of the best albums this year. Its pure summery pop rock that will put a smile on your face. Superb.
— XRayLexx 2006-06-20 07:46 #
standard bar band guitar riffs and solos? you’ve got to be joking. don’t seem like likely candidates for a collaboration? you’re not a likely candidate to write this review.
— larry torre 2006-06-22 05:25 #
I don’t know, to me their songwriting styles are different enought that, if you asked me 5 or 10 years ago, I never would have guessed they’d do an album together. And yeah, I think there’s some ordinary aspects to the music, but together they make it transcend those. Is that not a valid opinion to have? What, the only acceptable review is one that says, this is perfect, these guys are perfect, and that’s it?
— dave heaton 2006-06-22 11:15 #
Definitely one of the best non-GBV Pollard releases ever. There’s not a weak track on this album. There’s not an untrue statement in all of this review. The Keene Brothers are more exciting than any other Fading Captain work.
— Greg Wriston 2006-06-28 21:36 #
Lash? Is that you?
— dwight 2006-11-10 15:07 #