[mp3] Tommy Keene

Tommy Keene - "Take Back Your Letters" (mp3)

Tommy Keene is a patron saint of the obsessive, fetishistic cult of "power pop" that I try to stay away from as much as possible, but his actual music has more to it-- I think it was the 16-minute song on his last album that finally tipped me off to this and made me less guilty about liking him. Nevertheless, it's hard to say what there is to grab on to; every time I hear a record by him, I think it's nothing special and set it aside, only to find myself humming songs a few weeks later that, when I finally track them down, turn out to be those Tommy Keene tracks I only heard once. I guess this could explain how the disc this was a bonus track on (the 1998 CD of 1986's Songs From The Film) went from being a low-price major-label reissue to a serious collector's item within only about five years. Or maybe his fans are trying desperately to disprove the (true) notion that pretty much any one of Keene's albums is just as good as any other.