Keith Anthony has been a fixture in Gozo’s music scene for a long time, most notably as the guitarist and songwriter behind Chasing Pandora – the duo that earned a live session on BBC Radio 2’s Janice Long show, performed at NXNE in Toronto, played the Roundhouse in London, and had Classic Rock Magazine comment that their album sounded like “what popular music should sound like.” That’s a solid foundation to be stepping out from. “Applaud” dropped April 12th and marks his first release under his own name, recorded at Noise Studio in Gozo – the studio he built himself. The song deals with the hollow feeling that can sit underneath public approval, the gap between being seen and actually being recognized for something real.
The vocal delivery bears a striking resemblance to Alex Turner’s in its cadence and dry tone, which works well for the subject matter. Musically, the track builds its own momentum: it opens with just a guitar and claps, stripped right back, and then gradually layers in piano before graduating into a full blues-rock beat by the end. It’s a patient construction, and the restraint in the early sections makes the payoff land harder. What starts as an intimate acoustic folk piece ends up somewhere considerably heavier, all done in a smooth way that flows together just like God intended.
For someone stepping out from a well-established collaborative project into solo territory, this is a considered first move. The songwriting instincts that made Chasing Pandora worth paying attention to – the economy of arrangement, the emotional grounding – carry over cleanly here. “Applaud” earns its own space rather than leaning on the back catalogue, and if the rest of the solo material is at this level, Keith Anthony has more than enough to say on his own terms.
