Some people can sing; they may even sound like your favorite artist, and that’s certainly well and good. But some people? Some people can siiiing. Like, REALLY siiiing. Like, what comes beaming out of their very soul is an unfiltered deluge of cooperative or conflicting emotion and the purest form of devastating and enlightening communication. Singer/songwriter James Keen fits neatly within, and very much beyond, this stratospheric, barely classifiable category.
And this amazing voice is present in his latest full-length release, Crossover — an album we’ve been clamoring for since reviewing two singles from this covid-lockdown-driven masterpiece: “Falling or Flying,” and “Show Me What You Got.” Is it as grand, as cleverly written and powerfully expressed as the aforementioned releases? Let’s hit the highlights.
Wait. Who is James Keen??
He’s an international pop/rock/folk artist currently residing in London and writing music of a brand that’s sorely lacking in popular playlists. He toured all over the world as both a solo act, and with his successful band, Magazine Gap…..but you already know this, since the Ark of Music is your go-to source for real music.
Now, about those highlights…
Listening, and talking about it.
The album kicks off with fighting-in-the-emotional-trenches, inspiring-as-heck “Show Me What You Got.” With Keen’s strongly vibrating vocal and its Tracy Chapman-esque timbre, “Show Me What You Got” is the acoustic-based pop/rock/folk song that needs to be on every streaming playlist today. Right now. Like today, right now.
“Falling or Flying,” also previously reviewed here, is still as moving, as revealing, as ever. The song is hopeful, thankful, but weary and weighted with the costs of one’s accomplishments nearly snapping one’s overstretched resilience.
“Yes & No” is sure of itself, and likes its chances on the 50/50 split. This is another acoustic-guitar-led, dramatically strummed number that ends with a clean, tasteful electric guitar. Excellent, immediately catchy track.
“Minutes to Midnight” is a little darker – it’s a little Rolling Stones; like a ‘60s-drenched, combative, Vietnam-era peace anthem that, through ticking acoustic strums, counts down the clock to mankind’s self-inflicted doomsday. It’s the march to war and the impending cooperative cataclysm. Translation: Yeah, I totally love it.
Title track “Crossover” is lighter, airier fare with clean electric guitar strumming and a rounding piano. This is music at night, played through weightless dancers pirouetting on smooth floorboards, lit by passing traffic and its blinking prism of hide-and-seek lights.
“Compromise” features Keen’s incomparable vocal control as the verse starts up top, in falsetto, and completes in vibrato-heavy mid-range. It’s…astonishing to say the least. The song is folky, acoustic-heavy, and coming from a place of poetry; of tenacity by bending but only nearly breaking. Another great track? Eeeeyup.
“Get On Board” starts with a little clap-inspiring sampling. It’s bopping, determined, making bold moves until it confesses, in tears, otherwise. If you need motivation – if you need to “get on board” with your next pondered but never acted upon phase – this is the track to tip the balance towards action.
“Glow in the Dark” is funky and powerfully sung (of course). There’s a similarity to Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” and that kind of comparison is rare and refreshing. It bops along with Keen’s soaring voice, and quickly halts after speaking its truth.
“Crash-landed” begins with two promising, uplifting piano chords – the song’s catchy foundation. It’s a lamenting, a realization. It’s lurking in one’s faults and failures, but perhaps seeing a light only the very bottom makes evident. And as quickly as it came, it leaves us with the history it shared.
“On This Rock,” with accompanying violin (I think?), is flatland hardship folk; it’s the slow movement of a worn worker leaning, finally, into a rocking chair and witnessing the wonders of his impossibly hard work. Of realizing, finally, the fruits of his tenacity.
Album closer “The Ballad of Abraham Jones” is an ode to Keen’s appreciation of Paul Simon’s storytelling and vocalizing – that filling of each verse with sweetly sung sentences in favor of brief lyrics. It’s the tale of a regular person – of a person battling to correct his puzzling configuration to fit comfortably in a world unused to his peculiar self-shape. It’s a lifetime told over sparkling acoustic guitar and Keen’s wise telling. And when the tale is told, and the sun sets, the song simply ends.
But is it good?
The world needs more great adult songwriters who create from a place of real feeling. James Keen should be topping all the charts/playlists. Crossover should be the key to resuscitating a need for authenticity; the repeatable cure to today’s more vacuous and lifestyle-directed entertainers (who entertain first, and just happen to make music).
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say this again (but a little differently): If there’s room for another Sting, Phill Collins, Peter Gabriel, or other smart, adult pop mechanics, James Keen is primed and ready for that space. But, alas, contemporary tunes don’t lean that way — they prefer manufacturing over creation. If only we could do something to help James garner more attention….
(Pssst. Follow the links.)
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BELOW: Listen to James Keen and check him out on YouTube, Soundcloud, Facebook, Instagram, and all the usual streaming/downloading hubs. Please support James Keen by visiting his website and playing, downloading, and/or purchasing his music. And, as always, thank you for supporting real music.
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