Music Review // The Mosfets "Keith is a Blues Artist"

  Having a song titled "Keith is a Blues Artist" and then having it immediately give off blues rock n roll vibes is the way that it should be done.  If you couldn't hear any blues in this song I'd feel like it was misrepresented.  This guitar hook comes in and then gets loud, in a distorted way, which reminds me of a band somewhere between Led Zeppelin and The White Stripes.  It's a lot of fun though because it's full of energy and much like songs by those other two bands, this could become the type of anthem which unites people- even if they don't really listen to the lyrics.

During the chorus of this song The Mosfets sing "La da da da da da da da" which is repeated a few times before the line comes in: "I'm gonna be alone for a long time", which also becomes a theme to this song.  There is something understated about the simplicity of singing "la" and "da" though, which I feel like comes in useful when you think of the crowds who will sing along to The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army".  This song could have that same sort of energy in a large setting.

The way that the song sings these parts though, there are not a lot of lyrics outside of the "I'm gonna be alone for a long time".  Thinking about that line though just takes me back to the title of Keith being a blues artist and then you just have to kind of ask yourself that eternal question of "Is Keith alone because he's a blues artist or is Keith a blues artist because he's alone?"  There are certainly times when you write about things which happen to you, but then you begin to wonder if you're bringing them upon yourself as an artist.

The Mosfets also take this song into a Neil Young sort or level with the lines "Hey hey, my my / This is where I wanna die".   This also goes into "How can I be free? / You don't wanna be with me, yah".  So this song is about being alone also because the person you want to be with doesn't want to be with you.  In that sense it does feel like this is just something which has happened to Keith who happens to be a blues artist, but maybe it is also somewhat self inflicted and we don't really know the whole story but we'll always wonder.