Keith – “Waiting To Be” – How troubadorable the Philly-born Keith was. He could amble and shuffle his way thru a breezy set of late-60’s pop rock gems like nobody’s business. And he’s really reaching on The Adventures Of…the album he made for RCA after leaving Mercury. Fat lot of good it did him, but I salute his efforts. Pre-RCA, when he was signed to Mercury, he had hits (Everyone loves the wonderful “98.6”, right?) and was the stuff of idolhood. He coulda just rode the pretty boy pop angle into the dirt and left the ambitious stuff to blowsier bellbottoms. But NO! This album has fab four-borne psych-pop nuggets like “Marstrand” and “Mr.Hyde”. Songs like “Elea-Elea” which sounds like a slow-speed chase between two sinking ships. It’s riveting even though it’s really just a drippy ballad at bottom. “Charley Cinders” is a perfect closer. Alternating between mournful folk tale and cutting guitar rave-up. And “Waiting To Be” is epic. Keith’s crack session band dirges mournfully behind his plaintive wails as strings rise from the sea to swell and fall like winter whitecaps as Keith’s falsetto rises and falls in greeting. A piano is played backwards. The drums insist on gravity. Whooooosh! What a ride. Keith had complete control over this album and it’s his finest moment. If you are me. Or the Japanese.
― scott seward, Thursday, 5 July 2007 18:21 (seventeen years ago)