The first song James Keith ever wrote opens his new album with a few of its words changed and one new word in parentheses. “Life Is (Still) Good Today” returns to the optimism of the debut single that topped the ARIA Country Albums Chart, remastered in a different style, and the “Still” does the work of a sequel in a single word: here is a man who has been tested on the point and is repeating it anyway. The bouncy country guitars and feel-good energy that carry the opener set the terms for a country-rock record where happiness is something Keith has to keep earning.
Big riffs and twangy guitars supply the drive, and Keith’s husky, warm and rootsy voice carries the emotional weight over them. The arrangements widen as the feeling does. “Alive,” inspired by a moment when Keith walked up to a woman without overthinking it and felt wildly awake, layers its instruments and synth effects until the choruses explode, and the focus track “Don’t Wanna Stop” turns the small things a partner does into an anthem. The twang keeps the bright country edge while the synth effects give the choruses room to grow, a combination that puts the scale of rock and the immediacy of country-pop inside the same song. That sound has already earned him plays on ABC Country and a place on both the Metro and Country AMRAP charts, along with coverage from The AU Review, Scenestr and CMAA.
The record’s second song sets the premise. “She’s Worth The Wait” is about meeting someone later in life and being willing to be patient, with a long-distance relationship and some big decisions behind it. From there the middle of the sequence gives doubt its own songs. “The Moment” at four carries the fear that creeps in at the start of a relationship, the worry that it won’t work and that he’s about to be hurt again, and he took the chance despite the people warning him off. “Cruel Game” at six came from a comment by his girlfriend’s grandmother that he was being played, and it turns the doubters, the distance and the outside pressure into a song about trusting your own feelings. Keith puts the territory plainly in his own words: “songs about missing her, songs about fighting for it.” “I Miss You” at ten spends its time on the small habits and shared routines he misses during long-distance time apart.
Around the doubt, the album keeps its sunniest moments. “Best Part of My Day” belongs to new love, where small everyday moments with a partner become the highlights, and “This Life,” a previous single, is about recognizing a good relationship and committing to it without overthinking it. Rock gets a job of its own as well. “Man I Was Meant to Be” at eight brings in a stronger rock influence through electric guitar textures and driving rhythms, and it gives them to a song about the relationship bringing out his best self, taking responsibility and protecting his partner. The strongest rock influence on the record goes to the song about growing up, and the pairing says a lot about how Keith hears the genre: big guitars are for the moments that matter most to him.
A run of songs in the back half brings the girlfriend into the room. “Living This Life” at nine is the first song Keith co-wrote with his girlfriend, written on his boat in winter around their current activities and plans. “She Don’t” at eleven is about a city girl and a country boy blending their worlds into one. The sound makes the same point two tracks later. “Sixteen Thousand (16,251km)” is a duet with his girlfriend that began as a song she wrote in German, which she translated into English while Keith rewrote the lyrics and kept her original meaning. Acoustic country textures meet Afrobeat-inspired rhythms, and the kilometre count in the title puts the distance in plain view. Where “She Don’t” describes two worlds merging, this track puts them in one arrangement.
“Happy Birthday” closes the record, and it was written for his girlfriend’s birthday the previous year. It grew into a recap of the relationship that echoes themes from across the album, which suits a record shaped as one seamless story. An album that opens on a good day and ends on a birthday finds its proof of lasting love in the calendar. Across all of it, Keith’s husky voice keeps the rock and the country-pop on the same side of the story.
I Call It Magic When I’m With You is available now at jameskeith.au.
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