*** Tommy Keene

ISOLATION PARTY

(Matador)

If consummate power-pop craftsman Tommy Keene were a professional student instead of a musician, Isolation Party would be a PhD dissertation. His stint in DC new-wavers Razz (with bassist now turned producer Ted Nicely) was his undergraduate fun. A subsequent solo career (with releases on obscure North Carolina indie Dolphin and Geffen in the mid to late '80s) found him working toward a master's degree, which he took his time delivering to committee on 1996's brilliant Ten Years After.

Now, with Isolation Party, Keene refines his pop theses, striking an intelligent balance between the buzzing riffs and rhythms of Ten Years After and the gorgeous buoyancy of early favorites like "Places That Are Gone." He takes on Mission of Burma's "Einstein's Day," flirting with indie nostalgia, then follows it with a song ("Battle Lines") that refers to 1982 in its lyrics. When he declares, "The war goes on . . . " he could be talking about his own career. But like real academics who struggle in today's cruel job market, or other professorial popsters (the dBs' Chris Stamey and Peter Holsapple, Let's Active's Mitch Easter, Game Theory/Loud Family's Scott Miller) who keep turning out great music without commercial recognition, Keene seems prepared to stick around.

-- Mark Woodlief