By Jim Rowland
Keeley, fronted by singer, guitarist, songwriter and enigmatic Dubliner Keeley Moss, have already made waves in Ireland and the ÜK with a handful of very well received singles and a mini-album. This week sees the release of Keeley’s debut full length album, ‘Floating Above Everything Else’, and there’s an interesting twist to the story behind the album.
That twist involves Keeley’s ongoing fascination with the murder and short life of teenage German backpacker Inga Maria Hauser, who was brutally murdered in Northern Ireland in 1988 and whose case remains unsolved despite many promising leads pointing to the culprits. As an authority on the subject, Keeley recently appeared in ‘Murder In The Badlands’, a moving BBC documentary that further explores Inga Maria’s tragic demise, and a brand new film centred around Keeley’s involvement with the case is in development. Consequently, all of Keeley’s songs, including those on this album, reflect that fascination with this macabre, tragic and gruesome crime.
Despite the dark subject matter, there’s a delicate beauty to the material on ‘Floating Above Everything Else’, which draws influence from quite a wide range of late ’80s/early ’90s indie rock and pop. The likes of ‘Seeing Everything’, title track ‘Floating Above Everything Else’, ‘Echo Everywhere’ and ‘Totally Entranced’ are finely crafted, dreamy, atmospheric slices of alt-pop/rock with catchy hooks. The excellent ‘Forever Everywhere’ is an upbeat gem a little punchier in the guitar department, again with strong and catchy hooks, whilst ‘Never Here Always There’ and ‘You Never Made It That Far’ are just as effective, but with more of an electronic flavour.
It’s rounded off with an outstanding rendition of Spiritualized’s 1992 epic ‘Shine A Light’, clocking in at nearly ten minutes, before a short recording of Inga Maria Hauser herself singing Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ closes the album in chilling fashion.
Aided by producer Alan Maguire, who contributes keyboards, guitars and programming, and mixes from veteran producer Paul Tipler (Stereolab, Placebo, The House Of Love), ‘Floating Above Everything Else’ is quite exceptional for a debut album, and is odds on to build on the solid foundations already established for Keeley and break considerable new ground. It also serves as a fitting tribute to Inga Maria Hauser, an innocent victim of a senseless crime that Keeley Moss is clearly very passionate about.
- ‘Floating Above Everything Else’ is out now.
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