Tommy Keene - Songs From The Film (1986)

Tommy Keene (born June 30, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for releasing critically acclaimed new wave/power pop songs in the 1980s.

“Songs from the Film” is Tommy Keene's second full-length album and his major label debut. Originally released on LP and cassette in 1986 .

In what seemed like an attempt by Geffen to make a "big" pop record and endear Keene to an audience wider than critics and a small cult of discerning record buyers, renowned producer Geoff Emerick (Elvis Costello, Beatles) only succeeded at rounding the edges, thus stealing the spark from Keene's performance. The drums are buried in the mix and Keene's distinctive vocals obscured behind a wash of studio processing, but fortunately, Keene's talent shines through in memorable songwriting and biting guitar solos. "In Our Lives" and "Goldtown" are classic Tommy Keene melodic power rockers, while "The Story Ends" stands among his best Beatlesque ballads. But the infectious "Places That Are Gone," which opens side one, sounds awkwardly sped up and doesn't come close to matching the quiet intensity of the version that appeared as the title track of the 1984 “Dolphin EP”. The story has it that Geffen rejected the original Songs From the Film sessions, produced by T-Bone Burnett and Don Dixon, to make this record, although the label at least momentarily came to their senses and released tracks from those sessions later that year on the excellent “Run Now EP”. [Geffen's 1998 CD reissue of Songs From the Film includes the Run Now EP, plus four previously unreleased songs: "Take Back Your Letters," "We're Two," an alternate full-band take of "Faith in Love" and a live cover of the Flamin' Groovies' "Teenage Head."]

Track listing

01.  "Places That Are Gone"   (Tommy Keene)  - 3:53 
02.  "In Our Lives"  (Tommy Keene)  - 2:59 
03.  "Listen To Me"   (Tommy Keene)  - 3:52 
04.  "Paper Words And Lies"   (Tommy Keene)  - 2:23 
05.  "Gold Town"  (Tommy Keene)  - 2:57 
06.  "Kill Your Sons"   (Lou Reed)  -  5:02 
07.  "Call On Me"   (Tommy Keene)  - 3:04 
08.  "As Life Goes By"   (Tommy Keene)  - 2:23 
09.  "My Mother Looked Like Marilyn Monroe"   (Tommy Keene)  - 3:19 
10.  "Underworld"   (Tommy Keene)  - 5:00 
11.  "Astronomy"   (Tommy Keene)  - 1:28 
12.  "The Story Ends"   (Tommy Keene)  - 3:48 

1998 Bonus Tracks
13.  Take Back Your Letters  - 4:24
14.  Run Now  - 4:42 
15.  Away From It All  - 2:54 
16.  I Don't Feel Right At All  - 3:42 
17.  Back Again  - 4:03 
18.  They're In Their Own World  - 3:45 
19.  We're Two  (Previously Unreleased)  - 3:20 
20.  Faith In Love  (Previously Unreleased)  - 3:15 
21.  Teenage Head  (Previously Unreleased)  - 3:44 

Credits
Vocals – Tommy Keene
Backing Vocals – Billy Connelly
Drums – Doug Tull
Guitar – Billy Connelly, Tommy Keene
Keyboards – Tommy Keene
Percussion – Tommy Keene

Production
Producer – Geoff Emerick
Engineer – Matt Butler
Engineer [Second] – Frank Oglethorpe
Technician – Frank Oglethorpe
Art Direction, Design – Jeffrey Kent Ayeroff, Michael Hodgson

Notes
Recorded At Air Studios, Montserrat, West Indies
Originally Mastered By George Marino At Sterling Sound, NYC
Genre:  Rock
Length: 74:10
Label:  Geffen Records

© 1986