That Mike Keane is still here to deliver the fifth ROYAL FAMILY & THE POOR album (and his first in five years) is an achievement in itself. Since first putting the collective together back in 1978, he's struggled to overcome heroin addiction, extreme poverty, bankruptcy, critical dismissal and fragile health.
Not the rosiest of CVs, it must be said, so the fact Keane has stuck around to finish off arguably his best LP to date (and at least his most consistent), is reason to raise a smile and our hopes that he may still have a better future where his undoubted talent is recognised on a wider scale.
Recorded entirely alone at Keane's own Gaia studio in Liverpool, "North-West Soul" is a stark, but tuneful electro-pop collection, which - while not entirely abandoning the mystical/ occult slant of Keane's earlier work - presents the author unadorned, open and often far more direct than on any of his previous outings.
And he's nowhere more direct than on "North-West Soul"'s opening pair of tunes, "Falling" and "Sick Sad World." The former opens with a forlorn Keane opining: "In this darkness, I can't seem to find my way" as the track blossoms into lonely, edgy electro-pop of the most haunting hue and "Sick Sad World" is slow, contemplative and painfully honest, with Keane lamenting "I've no-one to turn to anymore, all I keep on finding is another closed door." Compared with the mystical, occult-intrigue of yore, these are both brave and stripped-back and wonderfully vulnerable.
There's more in this vein as the album continues too. "Long Time Coming", for instance, features Keane in a similarly realistic, rueful mood, although the track's E-bowed grace is truly dignified. "Leaves In The Wind", meanwhile, is probably the album's best chance as a single as it has confidence and brash, nagging guitars as well as a philosophical message.
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Which isn't to say Keane has entirely banished the mysticism either. Indeed, several of the album's other highlights are more typical Keane. "Wandering", for example, pits sampled girly vocals against bubbly synths and echoed guitar and Keane's more traditional cerebral lyrical intrigue, while "Ratio" - superficially at least - sounds similar to the best moments from "In The Sea Of E" and is both Eastern-tinged and infectious, if slightly too long.
There's some deadwood, and a couple of tunes (i.e "Hymn To Te Night", "Sol Sonic") that Keane should maybe have thought of lopping, but he also has the lovely, chiming "Sweeter Than The Day" in reserve, and two instrumentals - the sepulchral "Tell-Tale Heart" and the fast, disco-pulsing of the closing "Starfire" - which are both soundtrack-ish in execeution and possible precursors of the Royal Family's proposed instrumental album due later this year, also via Boutique.
"North-West Soul," then, is a brave, broody and isolated album, rich in affecting, nocturnal pop and almost unbearably honest soul-searching. It's been a long time coming and - as ever with Mike Keane - sounds resolutely out of step with most anything in vogue at present. Despite the darkness, though, it's probably the author's best album to date and might just bring this gifted loner in from the cold. Take heart, Mike: we're rooting for you.
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