The year was 1986 and quite obviously, at age of sixteen and still in the throes of my "dinosaurs of rock" phase, I wasn't among the small circle of critics and aficionados that hailed Tommy Keene's Songs From The Film as proof that the Great American pop-rock song was still alive. But despite that praise, the album never sold, and Keene disappeared into the annals of mediocrity. I stuck with the much more credible-- and infinitely more successful-- Replacements and R.E.M. Twelve years later, with R.E.M. drummerless and the Replacements history, Geffen has reissued Keene's mid-eighties classic (if there is such a thing) and it ended up in my package of goodies from Pitchfork.

A veritable testament to the three- minute pop song, the album's 70+ minutes of Big Star- influenced, melodic toe- tappers bear resemblance to both the Replacements' and R.E.M.'s work of that period. Keene is an accomplished songwriter and songs like "Gold Town," "They're In Their Own World," and "My Mother Looked Like Marilyn Monroe," are truly compelling. But even though producer Geoff Emerick (he worked with the Beatles and Elvis Costello, y'know) avoided many of the excesses that make most '80s pop an anachronistic joke, the tinny, shallow drums, hint of synth and jangly guitar work all date the album. Lacking the "bash" to compliment Keene's pop, Songs From The Film comes off like Replacements Lite.

As a musical artifact, Songs might be the long sought after missing link between Big Star and Paul Westerberg's solo work, or even a harbinger of times to come when '80s alternative and pop music would collide head on. But the album's most telling moment is Keene's disturbingly normal cover of Lou Reed's normally disturbing "Kill Your Sons." Ultimately, the album didn't take enough chances in 1986 to sound timeless in 1998, or to be compared to true '80s benchmarks like Murmur or Let It Be. But ain't that always the way?

-Neil Lieberman