Beautiful Mysterious is the second album by Keeley and having now reviewed her first three Ep's, as well as her first album and album launch. I am very familiar with Keeley's singular purpose, to make sure the whole world learns of the tragic disgraceful murder of Inga Maria Hauser in 1988, on her very first day in Ireland.
For anyone not yet familiar with this story Keeley has been writing the Keeley Chronicles www.Keelychronicles.com since 2016 forensically exploring the case and finding plenty of murky goings on, preventing prosecution of the most obvious suspect. Since Her First ep's Brave Warrior and Echo Everywhere were sent to me, I have like many others become part of the campaign to keep Inga Maria Hauser's name alive, even if justice seems like it will never be served.
Her band is made up of Lukey Foxtrot and Andrew Paresi and she is once again produced by Alan Maguire.
The album opens with A Doorway To Another World taking us back to 1987/8 as Keeley tries to find the chinks in the armour, to allow a solution to the terrible end Inga Maria Hauser came to, on that fateful Easter day she arrived in Ireland , the dreamy indiepop draws us into her world.
Trans-Europe 18 takes us on a journey that many 18-year-olds have taken, going inter-railing and seeing Europe, having life affirming experiences and coming of age in the most enjoyable ways they can find, only as the synths wrap themselves around the guitars, you jump on that express, things don't reach the destination of enlightenment you might have hoped for.
Inga-Maria's dream was the first single from the album and does what the title suggests, taking us into one of Inga Maria's dreams, she reports back to her parents the wonders she experienced on her travels, before everything she was enjoying was brought to its brutal tragic end.
Days In A Daze is gauzy hazy shoegaze trapped in a capsule, trying to find a way to express the loss and senseless murder of an innocent traveller, the police's total inability to catch the killer. Each note of the guitar solo seems to be asking yet another leading question.
Last Words traces back the route of the fateful journey, her last words sent home, Changing money in Inverness before catching the ferry, tension of expectation rings out, hoping she'll find somewhere nice to stay in Ireland when she reaches Larne.
Galloway Princess has Inga getting on board that boat that will take her on towards her unexpected final journey.
Inga Hauser gets off the boat, all happy in a dream searching out the possibilities, asking for assistance, Keeley wonders did you get to breath the air happily even once, before you met the evil scum that brought your journey to a tragic brutal conclusion, the guitars soar like screams of agony in the darkness, never to be heard until they started to echo down through time.
Forever Froze a life that hit a far too early brick wall, a story cut short in that Irish night. Atmospheric supple haze of guitars and her fate unfolds on that night she was froze into a horror of purgatory.
Scratches On Your Face are found on the face of the un-named killer, scratched trying to rape the innocent Inga, with the stark lyrics woven into a dreamscape at odds with the terror and despair of a dying victim, trying to find hope from within such brutality.
Waves Of 1988 opens listing all the destinations on her trip from her arrival in England to her demise in Ireland, this feels like a bright breezy travelogue of a song that of course doesn't have a happy ending, among her dreams and aspirations revealed in her letters and postcards home, the waves of the merest ripple Inga made during her voyage.
You Were The Beauty is a slow lament for Inga's one mistake meeting the wrong man on her arrival in Ireland, seeking the beauty of the country, when in fact she was the beauty and Ireland turned out to be her beast. The secret version of Amazing Grace is one verse sung by Inga Maria Hauser, that is both sparse and haunting.
Find out more at about Inga Maria Hauser at https://thekeeleychronicles.wordpress.com/ and the album at https://keeleysound.com/ https://keeleyband.bandcamp.com/album/beautiful-mysterious https://www.facebook.com/keeleysound
