Annie Keating – TRICK STAR

Annie Keating
TRICK STAR
Independent
***1/2
Powerful singer-songwriter fare with uplifting anthems and downbeat insights
Brooklyn singer-songwriter Annie Keating has written a song and named her seventh album after the bike she had when she was a kid. The song is a celebration of the freedom the bike bestowed and elsewhere there are a couple of equally uplifting moments. These come from opening song You Bring The Sun and Time Come Help Me Forget, a song with a power-pop beat and hooky tune which belies its title. It’s not all like that though. The album closer Phoenix, the most powerful piece here, is enhanced by a sweet-voiced choir and builds to a glorious peak. Between times Keating treads familiar paths of lost love, regret and shoulda, coulda, woulda territory but each time brings something – an insight, a melody, a vulnerable voice, a truth – that makes the songs hit home, and hit home hard.
The songs took eight months to write but only a weekend to record as live in a studio converted from a fire station. There’s certainly a spontaneity to the performances and an intimacy to Keating’s vocals that bring to mind a sweeter-voiced Lucinda Williams. Despite the championing of Bob Harris she remains a not particularly well known name but this sort of high quality release deserves to change that.
Jeremy Searle

Subscribe to our newsletter

Don't miss new updates on your email
Scroll to Top

We’re thrilled to announce that Maverick Magazine is now available to you through 
our exclusive FREE digital subscription! Click below to subscribe now