Album Of The Month – “Drawn To The Flame” by Keeley

Following the success of her debut EP Brave Warrior in (2021), and follow-up EP Echo Everywhere in (2022), Dublin based artist Keeley has had her music played on BBC 6Music’s Steve Lamacq, BBC 6Music’s Radcliffe & Maconie, BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio Cymru, as well as SiriusXM and College Radio in the USA, reaching the number 1 spot on the Radio Indie Alliance charts. Having played at numerous gigs Keeley has been busy in the studio recording her debut album Drawn To The Flame, which has been selected as my Album Of The Month.

Released on 1st July 2022, via Dimple Discs, Drawn To The Flame is testament to Keeley’s progress as an artist and dynamism with her bandmates, Martin Fagan on bass, Marty Canavan on keyboards and Tim O’Donovan on drums.

Drawn To The Flame is a mesmerising mini album, whose seven tracks (plus 1 hidden track with vocals by Inga Maria-Hauser) travel through the translucent tunnels of post-punk and is illuminated by the light of new wave. It’s a hypnotic haze of delirious dream-pop and spacey-shoegaze that floats between the residual energy of 80s synth-pop and lingers in the eerie corridors of ethereal rock.

A trance-inducing album, Drawn To The Flame smoulders from the ashes of dark-wave and ignites the incandescent innovation of politically infused music. Inspired by the German backpacker Inga Maria-Hauser, who was brutally murdered in Northern Ireland in 1988, Drawn To The Flame explores the sadness and uncertainty surrounding the case, and creates a bittersweet catharsis.

As a singer-songwriter and instrumentalist, Keeley provides a heightened sensitivity and pensive overview of her tragic muse. A compelling piece, Drawn To The Flame is softly sculptured, sonically sharp, and rearranges the ethos of DIY punk with a combatant and emotionally driven approach.

Through the swirly, whirly tones, Drawn To The Flame, dips into its palette of dreampop, day tripping through the cosmic dust of neo-psychedelia whilst harmonising with the hues of slowcore. It’s a contemporary composition, that seizes the moment, whilst feeling the retro ripples of the past. Through the textured timbres, Drawn To The Flame intermixes the sublime sensuality of music with the bleak nihilism of life. It’s a hauntingly beautiful work of art, that floats through the fog of goth rock, and shines from the moonlight of neo-folk.

Through the interchange of guitar riffs, Drawn To The Flame reverberates from the reverie of alt-country and descends into the doldrums of neo-blues. It’s an album that highlights the easy-going poise and fluidity between genres, blending the shimmery strums and jangly riffs, with a bio-luminescence afterglow. It’s an ambient alliance of breezy vocals and brooding electrics that drift between the cracks and crevices of indie-rock, whilst stomping its spectral sand prints on the chimerical coastlines.

It’s also an album that throbs to the heart of post-punk, and pulsates from the tribal beats of new-wave. It’s an oeuvre of alternative rock that timelines the pivotal moments that helped shape and influence the course of music from a golden age. It’s music that surfs in the DNA pool of rockabilly and adds a baseline of glam rock glitter. Sophisticated yet youthful, breezy yet profound, Drawn To The Flame clips the staccato strums along the choppy waves of guitar laden music and creates a motif of melancholy and wistful aesthetics. Think Cocteau Twins and Mazzy Starr meet Nico, drowning their sorrows with Radiohead and The Smiths and then gets their drinks spiked by the Pixies, and David Bowie, then you get an idea of what the music is about.

Drawn To The Flame was produced by Keeley and Alan Maguire and features mixes by Paul Tipler (Stereolab, Placebo, The House Of Love) and piano and organ contributions from Morgan Fisher (Love Affair, Mott The Hoople, Queen).  

KEELEY live shows (more TBA)

June 17th 2022 : London @ 229 (supporting Sea Fever)

July 9th 2022:  Cork @ Crane Lane Theatre 

July 16th 2022: Dublin @ The Thomas House 

Oct 8th 2022: London @ Islington O2 Academy (supporting The Darling Buds)

Tracklisting

1. Shadow On The Hills

2. Boarded Up In Belfast

3. Dead On Arrival

4. Where The Monster Lives

5. Travelling In The Opposite Direction

6. Saw The Sea

7. Gift From A Ghost 

8. *hidden track Greensleeves (sung by Inga Maria-Hauser)

Available to pre-order on Bandcamp


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