PERRY KEYES - Meter

Perry Keyes is an Australian taxi driver from Sydney, making his debut in the world of music. This first album of his is titled "Meter", a double record that gathers together all the stories (or at least the most significant ones) the author has lived through, as he tries, in doing so, to frame a fragment - as broad as possible, if he can manage it - of society. The sound he's chosen is classic rock rooted in folk-rock, and there's no real difference between the two halves of the record. Yes, you guessed right: Keyes really does think he's Bruce Springsteen, and this is his "The River".

Springsteen became an icon and one of the most significant figures in rock precisely because he managed, among the last artists ever to do so, to perfectly embody a broad cross-section of people, writing songs that were simple yet deeply inspired and packed with genuine feeling. The Boss's charisma becomes mere mannerism in Keyes's hands, whose perspective is far more limited, however hard he tries to come across as formally flawless. And truth be told, a perfect or even just good imitation wouldn't have bothered this writer at all: the darting keyboards, the glimmering guitars, the lively pace and that "kind of off" voice on "Sweaty Sneakers", together with the funky, surf-tinged pulse of the carefree, fun little tune "2nd Time I Saw You", make for a few minutes of genuine daydreaming. What disappoints this writer is that, after a promising start, "Meter" slides into anonymity.

Well-calibrated anonymity, Springsteen-esque anonymity: anonymity all the same. The slow psych of "Beer and Cigarettes" goes by, along with the ballads "Some Aches" and "Service City", and the lively "Vicious Left Hook". They go by without anything really happening, and boredom starts to set in. The songs aren't even bad on their own: but parading them out one after another, all too similar and all rather trite, is hardly a stroke of genius. One starts to suspect that the two best tracks only stand out because of where they're placed in the sequence. To save the day, the perspective shifts slightly: to Springsteen are added touches of Dylan and Reed. The change does the record good, giving us the delicate "Just Like a Steam Train" and "Fairfield Girl", both brimming with charm, while the Boss-quoting "Sandra's on the Way" rides in on a well-worn riff that nonetheless still works.

In the end, it never quite reaches a passing grade. What remains is the bittersweet feeling of good moments drowned in too much homage and quotation, delivered with passion but without adequate talent. What it would take is someone able to channel all this into one great, fully realized work. Ah, silly me - that's already been done.

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30/04/2026