Customer Reviews

Based On Happy Times

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Much like 1986's Songs From the Film, Geffen seemed bent on making Keene's music bigger than life with Based on Happy Times, but this time the overall production sounds less forced and truer to capturing the purity and aggressiveness of Keene's live sound. Recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis with Joe Hardy and John Hampton at the helm, Based on Happy Times brought together the best elements of Keene's previous work, including excellently crafted pop songs, delicious guitar figures, and tight ensemble playing. Among the collection's strongest cuts: the sadly beautiful "This Could Be Fiction," which fades with a lovely string passage; the powerful "When Our Vows Break"; and the haunting album closer "A Way Out," featuring R.E.M.'s Peter Buck on mandolin. And as usual, Keene can pick interesting cover tunes, this time around doing a quirky and fun take on a Beach Boys obscurity, "Our Car Club," which also includes a guitar cameo by Buck. Perhaps if this superb record had been given the promotion it deserved, Tommy Keene would have the name recognition of the aforementioned artists. - Jack Leaver, AMG

Based on Happy Times is perhaps Keene's hardest disc to come across, which is such a shame because it's absolutely loaded with fantastic pop songs that run the gamut from sad semi-ballads such as "If We Run Away," cowritten with Jules Shear, upbeat punchy tunes like "Nothing Can Change You" (covered by the Goo Goo Dolls), and even a silly rendition of the Beach Boys' "Our Car Club." It's miles above standard 80's jangle pop-rock, and can go toe-to-toe with the best of R.E.M. and Big Star, while still taking subtle cues from the arena rock of the day like the Outfield and Rick Springfield (maybe Tommy would have hit it big if he threw the word "field" in his name). Keene's biggest strength is his ability to take ordinary rhyme couplets like "stay/away", "you/true", etc. and turn them into something genuinely emotional and fresh shounding. I saw him live recently backing up Guided By Voices, and the songs he did from this record sounded as strong as ever. Maybe one of the tracks here will be rediscovered for a movie soundtrack and bring this baby back into print!

Best Tracks:
"Nothing Can Change You" - Sublimely enjoyable power pop with the expectedly great chorus.
"This Could Be Fiction" - Great Beatles-esque outro guitar closes this awesome track, again with a knockout chorus.
"When Our Vows Break" - One of the tracks from this album I saw live. Nice lyrics on this one, to boot.
"If We Run Away" - One of the best melodies on the whole record graces this soft, winsome song. Great lyrics too, like "we changed together like the weather in a thousand skies" - wow!
"Picture" - A pure pop number with a nice main riff.

Good, lord. Nearly fifty bucks to buy "Based on Happy Times"? I've got an original vinyl copy. Wonder what that's worth. Geffen screwed Tommy Keene (old news) when they should have been making him a star. And as handsome as he is, that cover has got to go! .... Love this record: Really beautiful (power)pop rock. His sound was (is) so distinctive and so thoroughly joyful and rocking. It's like he bled the Beatles' "Revolver" dry and shoved the juice into his guitar. David Segal, the former rock critic at the Washington Post, had an article in the Sunday magazine this week talking about how he spent all his reviewer years looking for that epiphany, that perfect live moment where you melt into the band, the music and it borders on religious, maybe even takes the place of the religious experience. I can't tell you how many times I had that with Tommy Keene, with my eyes closed, drenched in sweat, at the foot of the old 9:30 Club stage as he launched into "Places That Are Gone" or any of his great raveups. The lights would go dark before the show and Julie Andrews singing "My Favorite Things" came over the loudspeakers. It was constantly electric in anticipation and they would come out -- doug tull, ted nicely, Tommy (shoot, what was the name of the other guitarist?) and just blow you away. I got to know him a little bit, and was friends with Ted, who went on to produce Fugazi and others and then moved away, and their music is the core of my love for everything right about rock and roll. Get into this, despite the price, and turn it up REALLY loud, and catch a glimmer of what I'm gushing about.

The growing tension and melancholy in Keene's lyrics belies the melodic power and contagiously confident sound of Based on Happy Times, an excellent, overcast album that alternately resembles Pleased to Meet Me-era Replacements and the darker side of Let's Active. Keene's songwriting (with some assistance from Jules Shear) has never been better; the playing and production (by bassist Joe Hardy, drummer John Hampton and Keene) is spot-on, except for the strings that occasionally intrude in several arrangements. Pete Buck guests on a pair of tunes, including a bluesy cover of the Beach Boys' "Our Car Club." - Ira Robbins/Jim Green, Trouser Press