Critic’s Pick: Guster – “Keep It Together”
Buy (Itunes)
This is the first in a never-ending series of articles that will look back at some of our favorite albums.
One day in high school I found myself wandering around the mall aimlessly, which is the only way I can justify stepping foot inside Sam Goody to peruse a music store with a 75% markup and 98 Degrees thumping in the speakers.
Like then, I still don’t believe much in portable music. Maybe I’m just a cheapskate or I listen to music too hard, but I need my walkin’ time to think. So, much like a kid in Wisconsin might have done in the 70’s, I bought an album blind — based on the song titles and the CD cover. (For the record, this method didn’t always have the best results: it led directly to a regrettable obsession with the pop-awful band Yellowcard – but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.)
The album I bought began with football stadium-style thumping drums backed by a progression of three chords that sounded as if they were still warming up. Then came an utterance of vocals that delivered like the singer was reading a letter that he could never bring himself to leave under her pillow.
“The secrets that we keep/ we say them in our sleep/ and wrestle down our souls if they would speak/ I watched you board a train/ in the London rain/ and waved bye-bye as you slipped out of view/ Diane…”
I was hooked.
Guster’s Keep It Together is one of the most masterfully produced and written pop rock albums of all time. It’s all parts personal, wistful, inane and just plain fun.
The true triumph of the album is the 7-minute long title track “Keep It Together”
“When we all finally washed ashore it was clear there was no one else around/ we declared a national holiday/ a chance to build it from the ground/ so far away from everyone – and everything starts today/”
The song chronicles their escape from a world riven by war and their failed attempt to create a society that isn’t based on senseless violence.
“The thunder struck/ the clouds appeared/ our fearless crew was not prepared/ and pretty soon their boats came for us half-a-million strong/ we gathered arms, we fired shells/ we built a wall around ourselves/ and pretty soon the spirit was a lot like what it used to be back home.”
And now, here’s a video of them performing that song on a Carnival Cruise:
