Brian Anderson’s new record Keepers under the name Cataldo seems like something we’ve heard before only this time it’s different. Like listening to someone else read a book you’ve already read. It’s familiar but it’s also completely redone and original. Sitting somewhere between 80’s pop, Deathcab For Cutie, and the nostalgia of Jr. High dances, Keepers is all at once full of sadness, bright pop, and awkward slow dances with pretty people, and sweat palms on hips and shoulders.
Ben Gibbard of Deathcab fame sings on the album’s opener “Room Without A Flame” and the chord that connects both Anderson and the indie rock staple is both connected and severed. Yes there are great similarities between the two smart-indie rockers, but where Gibbard is subtle, shy, and soft, Anderson breaks through with a soft grit in the vein of Kristian Matsson’s The Tallest Man On Earth.
On the personal “Person You’d Be Proud Of” Anderson creates a beautiful and hopeful atmosphere drenched in teen movie, pop movements. Similar nostalgia stems from my personal favorite track, “Little Heartbeat.” The song is fun, playful, and it’s a time machine in song. A nervous fumbling of hands and lips in the school gymnasium, standing shy against the wall, moving closer in a crowd of friends, popular girls, sad lonely boys, and drunk chaperones. Fast pecks, a quick glance, a giggle, noticeable and unrecognizable. We are having fun here.
That’s what makes Keepers so great. On “Your Love Has Got me Running Home (To You)” Anderson is restless but also on the line and settling down with love, and on “A Short Goodbye To No One In Particular” Anderson relives past memories and letting go among string arrangements and heartfelt vocals. Even through the heavier parts, Anderson keeps the record moving and it makes the darker parts feel like a passing breeze. It’s the small quirks and pieces that make the record. It’s the fun nostalgia. It’s the subtle build-ups. It’s the memories built and remembered. It’s the keepers.
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