Tommy Keene is best known to smart pop obsessives for the superb songwriting that's dominated the handful of great albums he's released since 1984, including Songs from the Film, The Real Underground, and Ten Years After. But
Keene has also established himself as a first-class guitarist, having toured as a sideman with the likes of
Paul Westerberg and
Robert Pollard, and on his 2009 album,
In the Late Bright,
Keene has given his guitar work a greater prominence than on many of his previous albums. No,
In the Late Bright isn't dominated by ten-minute guitar workouts full of
Eddie Van Halen style acrobatics (or even the manic soloing
Keene used to close out his brilliant cover of
Lou Reed's "Kill Your Sons"), but the five-minute instrumental "Elevated" demonstrates how much menace and atmosphere
Keene can conjure with his instrument, and the soaring hard rock tone of "The Right Time to Fly" and "Goodbye Jane" find
Keene allowing himself a little more room to swagger than usual. And the great guitar work on
In the Late Bright is, as usual, in the service of a stack of great songs; his melodies are both hooky and robust, capturing a broad range of deep tonal colors, and with Jon Richardson on drums, this album features some of the most satisfying rock & roll of
Keene's long and distinguished career. The big guitars and forceful tone of
In the Late Bright are hardly without precedent in
Tommy Keene's career -- this is one popmeister who's always known how to rock out -- but the rich wallop of this disc's best moments make it clear that he isn't slowing down or mellowing with age, and after 2006's fine Crashing the Ether, this shows him continuing to move from strength to strength. ~ Mark Deming