Customer Reviews

Sketchbook

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Sketchbook as a very eclectic rock album that harkens back to the days of thematic albums. It wouldn't take much imagination to put a storyline to it to proclaim this dreamy, rock/pop/techno music a rock opera of sorts. It has the necessary long pauses of instrumental music for scene changes, allowing the mind to put up new pictures. In 'Long Nights' Keyes develops a Bowie-type surround sound (think the Black Tie, White Noise era) to drape the night with caffeine and walking.

long nights are killing me
all I need I take from my friends
I talk to them after midnight
4 cups of coffee and newspaper headlines
say it again, will it keep me alive

From his informative website we learn that Keyes was a: Graduate in Music Composition and Music Theory from The University of Notre Dame. During college, his talent as a composer emerged big time. In fact, the success of the third movement of his String Quartet No.1 and the second movement of his Six Pieces for Piano landed him a scholarship to the Aspen Music Festival, where he studied composition, conducting, and performance with Charles Jones, Leonard Bernstein, and Andre Watts.

That dedication to a start in classical music thinking is why his pop/rock sound is so undiluted with the current tides of indie that constantly wash up on shore. The 10 tracks on Sketchbook are as original as if he's never bothered with a Beatles or Nirvana album, and that alone is compliment enough at this point in history.

This is the best CD ever!! My whole family enjoys it. It is creative and imaginative. its a huge change from his other music and I love it.

So whatever happened to superheroes anyway? Did they just fade into the underground with comic books? Well, I would like to propose a new superhero. A superhero that clarifies and confounds simultaneously. A super hero that uplifts while bringing forth racking sobs from your chest. And this superhero is... Tim Keyes. Yeah, not such a great superhero name, I know. But wait until you see his superpowers. I'll start by telling you about his amazingly eerie Pink Floyd style intro to his new album Sketchbook. No one else has even attempted, let alone been this successful at capturing such a unique and shiver-evoking sound. The sheer emotional power of it would likely send maximum security prison escapees scampering back to their cells. Now let me impress you by describing Keyes' impressive musical versatility. With ease he maneuvers back and forth between solid keyboard based jams and despondent guitar, heavy on the tears. Like a multi-tasking Superman he pairs an upbeat feel-good sound like that of the Allman Brothers with melancholy scenes of the everyday. To view this particular superpower more closely, take a good listen to Track 6. Like any superhero, Keyes has backup super-friends. Sketchbook features an array of musicians with superpowers of their own. The album's behind the scenes crew shoots out funky backup vocals and bass lines similar to that of electronic music on some tracks. In fact, you might even hear a French horn combating evil on other tracks. Even though he is, after all, a superhero, Keyes remains in tough with his human side. He has an uncanny knack for capturing life in small surprising phrases we all recognize yet have never thought of as important. "4 cups of coffee and newspaper headlines" or "I get by with a mind like plastic that teaches my robot hands to pour a drink" are some of his best. And Keyes, although a superhero, is still vulnerable as evidenced in his lyrics such as: "You are a wound that will not heal / you are a car that will not yield / you are justification for human sacrifice." Honestly, if you were crazy enough not to buy into Tim Keyes' obvious superhero capabilities, the album art alone merits the price of a CD, at least. Like Keyes' music, Meg Poltorak's photography and design uses subtle
color to illuminate occurrences we've all seen, but never like this.