dEUS - Keep You Close (LP)

Flip to the title track and you can hear exactly why dEUS still matters. Keep You Close arrived in September 2011 on PIAS, the sixth studio album from Antwerp’s art rock survivors, and it opens with a swell of strings and a heartbeat thump that pulls you straight into Tom Barman’s orbit. His voice sits warm and close, conspiratorial, while the band around him traces big, cinematic shapes. It is a welcome reminder that dEUS can go widescreen without losing their pulse.

That push and pull defines the record. “Constant Now” snaps into focus with clipped guitar, a taut bassline, and a chorus that blooms at just the right moment. It is one of their sharpest singles, the kind of track that makes you check the runout groove on the Keep You Close vinyl because the production feels so tactile. “The Final Blast” plays with tension, its chugging rhythm and shadowy harmonies joined by a guest vocal from Greg Dulli that deepens the mood. Dulli’s presence fits the band’s taste for noir, and you can hear Barman relish the interplay, letting phrases linger while guitars flicker at the edges.

The whole lineup brings their signatures without crowding the frame. Mauro Pawlowski colors the songs with guitar lines that slip from jagged to liquid, often within the same verse. Klaas Janzoons is the secret glue, stitching violin and keys into the rhythm section so the songs feel plush but never fussy. Alan Gevaert keeps everything grounded with a bass tone that thumps rather than booms, and Stéphane Misseghers does that dEUS thing where the drums feel both mechanical and human, locked but always breathing.

“Dark Sets In” lives up to its title, building slowly on piano and low strings until the band lets the ceiling lift. “Ghost” floats in on hushed vocal lines, a patient lament that benefits from the record’s emphasis on texture. Even the more straightforward rockers have little trapdoors. “The End of Romance” turns from a barroom sway to something closer to a torch song. “Twice (We Survive)” unfolds like a late night confession, hushed at first, then suddenly tall and sure. Closer “Easy” is not, at least emotionally; it walks you out with a heavy-lidded groove and the sense that dEUS understands endings as passages, not walls.

If you have followed them since Worst Case Scenario and In a Bar, Under the Sea, this album lands like a late chapter that refuses to coast. The playfulness of their early collage-rock still echoes here, but the craft is tighter, the edits cleaner. It feels like a band taking stock of its strengths and doubling down on melody, arrangement, and pacing. Around its release, the record drew strong notices across Europe and sent them back through the clubs and summer festivals where these songs breathe best. Hearing “Constant Now” ricochet around a room makes immediate sense after spending time with the record, which teaches you how to listen for the quiet details before the chorus hits.

On vinyl, those details really glow. Strings sound woody rather than glossy, and you can pick out the air around the toms in the title track. If you spot a clean Keep You Close vinyl copy in the wild, do not overthink it. I found mine in a Melbourne record store, and it has become the dEUS vinyl I reach for when I want the band at their most embraceable. If you prefer to buy dEUS records online, this one is easy to recommend, and it sits well alongside other dEUS albums on vinyl from the late 90s and 2000s. Even shops that specialize in vinyl records Australia tend to price it sensibly when it turns up, which is always a nice bonus.

Keep You Close captures a group of lifers trusting their instincts. The songs lean into warmth and drama, but there is steel underneath. That balance is what makes the album so playable, front to back, and what keeps it turning long after the last chorus fades.