Highlights: Burning Bright, The Island
The comparisons are inevitable. The Doozer’s Keep It Together sounds like Syd Barrett who’s never heard of LSD. Now that I’m considering this, there’s no question that the idea seems enticing. Less maddening but just as charming, whimsical and maybe even a little odd. Well, yes, but that way you also have to do away with Barrett’s charisma. Which is exactly what made stuff like “Octopus” or “Matilda Mother” so good and so unique.
That said, there’s no reason why one shouldn’t enjoy Keep It Together for what it is. Lovely little acoustic melodies livened by an occasional cello, sitar, trumpet. Very simple but tasteful arrangements, cozy atmosphere of light psychedelic haze. Sadly, even with a gun to my head I would not be able to say anything specific about these songs. They are all catchy, I guess, but with so little variation and personality they sort of merge one with another. In fact, the only song that sticks out of this set is the five-minute epic called “The Island” that features beautiful melancholic piano and a welcome sense of mystery. The rest is much less remarkable. No, the edge is there, I guess, but by the end of the record you’ll have to wonder whether this is not because of the fact that the singer’s Simon Loynes’ vocals sound exactly like Syd Barrett’s.
What’s there to add? Well, nothing, except that at moments the melody of “Fen Drayton” is so just like that song from The Madcap Laughs it seems almost too much.
Good but underwhelming.
6/10
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