Kealer - 'My Own Worst Enemy' (Jive)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
The lucky ones get to do something they enjoy as their job. Kealer not only does that, but uses his fledgling musical career very much as a form of self-healing whilst he's at it.
His debut album, 'My Own Worst Enemy', is a document of thoughts, knowledge and past occurrence, a history of Kealer to date over some sultry but assured and proudly British-sounding guitar-rock. It's almost a prequel to a career to come, an insistence that we must hear the beginning of the story before anything can move on. So here goes, and you should be warned, things are about to get personal.
The only problem with songwriting straight from the heart is you have to be damn sure you've got something that everyone else wants to hear. At times, Kealer strays a little too close to self-pity for this to be the case; a small portion of his work is just so delicate that it defies any real universal appeal. You get the impression that Kealer and a group of close friends will sit back and soak up the likes of 'Goldigger' and know exactly what this is all about... But for the rest of us who aren't lucky enough to be his mates, Kealer's work, although obviously individualistic, still comes across as strangely (and gratuitously..?) cryptic.
Although difficult to connect with on a lyrical level, there's a lot here to love. Opener 'Thru The Nose' is an early peak, managing to be simultaneously touching and boldly rollicking, a concept featured in most of the album's best moments, rearing its head again on a strident 'Cash Money' and the huge soars of 'Just Another Week'.
It's a record that constantly contradicts itself, mournful one minute, happy the next, moving through anger, eccentricity and fatigue along the way. It's also highly self-deprecating, its author finding much creative pleasure in being highly critical of his life, personality and experiences. As such, with all these conflicting emotions battling for space, it's a little difficult to form an opinion of Kealer. Are we supposed to warm to him, see him as cheeky, or feel sorry for the guy? The pounding 'Superman' seems to suggest all of them. If anything, trying to come up with a solution to this conundrum is the most endearing thing about the album.
With 40 minutes of the bare bones of his life on show, you wonder how much Kealer's got left to share. The safe money is on a hell of a lot. In a way, it's respectable that his debut record doesn't present him as the finished article... It's something that needed to get out of the system, ghosts that had to be musically exorcised, and boy, do we all feel better after it... It's been quite a perplexing ride, but by the end of it, in his own words, 'you realise your life is only one purpose for this time'... Basically, that means you get over yourself, and that's what this album's overriding sentiment is all about.
Its elegant closing thought, 'Wheel', comes as something of a release, quietly joyful that everyone's survived intact. We might not know everything about him yet, but Kealer feels one hell of a lot better. It's nice to have played a part in that.
Artists in this article: Kealer
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment