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On the face of it, 'Keith' seems a pretty odd name for a band. Why
share your name with thousands of people and a district in Scotland
when you could be carving out an individual identity for yourself?
But there is another side to the equation. Anyone named Keith is
bound to want to hear you, and even if you're not blessed with that name it
makes you think of those that are - in this case a champion swimmer, a
far-flung Uncle or an ex-Marine.
Like the name, the band have a pretty mainstream appeal too, with
their easy-on-the ear melodies and tales of everyday emotions. Yet
with the songs, and their occasional settings of English pastoral
scenes, there's something pleasingly left of the field about them, a
willingness to take on far flung influences that suits them well.
The songs of mainstream appeal are headed by recent single Lullaby,
breezing in on the back of a carefree piano line and leading up its
chorus of escapism, where Oli Bayston sings "we will try to forget
what's going on over there".
This helps to give a hint of the band's softer underbelly. While
songs such as You Don't Know are a call to arms, albeit with a touch
of insecurity, Don't Want To Be Apart finds the Warrington quartet in
wistful mood in a heart on sleeve ballad.
Even here they refuse to go the way of pop routine, thanks in part
to producer Dan Carey, who has previous with Franz
Ferdinand and Hot Chip. It's to be assumed he's responsible
for the nice brushes of electronica around the edges of this song and
others.
Elsewhere the band flirt with Eastern promise for Up In The Clouds,
which also has a nice bit of white noise psychedelia to its cymbal
sounds and more of a driving rhythm, while Bayston suddenly comes down
for a more ruminative approach on You Don't Know, proclaiming all
matter of fact that "today I love you and it's a quarter to 10".
Lucid even makes an excursion into dub, and it's to the band's immense
credit that they emerge from this with credibility intact.
Yet none of this prepares the listener fully for the powerful title
track, 10 minutes of music that says much more in notes than it does
in words, gathering power slowly until an intense and impressive coda,
a sign that Keith have plenty left in the tank.
Vice And Virtue, then, is an impressive statement of intent, enough
to mark Bayston and co. out from the more stale examples of Indie-dom
emanating from the North West. Their ability to speak in more than one
language should find them many new friends - another Keith to add to
the list.
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