Keywest are one of those bands who I’ve heard about, seen their stuff online but didn’t really know anything else. ‘Back In Your Arms’ is the first single to be taken from their debut album ‘The Message’, due for release later this year.
The band have been working with Mark Needham (The Killers. Fleetwood Mac) so I was expecting a polished pop song. That’s what I got. The track starts with a breathy vocal not dissimilar to Enrique’s style. A drum beat drives the song to its chorus crescendo. It’s only then that full instrumentation is used. If you crossed U2 and The Script, you’d get Keywest. Drums and guitar seem to be very U2 influenced, with a hint of the Edge’s guitar sound and style.
Just before the three minute mark, the track breaks down to the vocal again, here I’d expect another chorus maybe two before the song ends. For my liking this part of the song goes on a tad too long, although they do introduce a nice ‘Keane’ piano sound into the mix.
Keywest are getting spoken about by many as ‘the next best thing’ and it probably will get a lot of radio play. I’d like a bit of ‘Grr!’ in the mix, maybe the guitars a tad higher.
The guys are kind enough to provide us with a second track ‘It’s Me Not You’, an acoustic led track which incorporates some beautiful string arrangements. A nice album track and no doubt, a fan favourite for sing-alongs at gigs. It also gives an insight to how the band could capture a nice chunk of market in the U.S.
I’ll be interested to hear more, if the band are going for a nice clean pop rock sound, then they have that sorted. In the three minute world, I just hope their song lengths doesn’t harm them in that.
Listen to a sample of ‘Back In Your Arms‘ below