Vice and Virtue

2009 sophomore album from the Manchester band, one of the city's best kept musical secrets. Vice & Virtue finds Keith creating a vast sonic playground. But for all the experimental and cerebral moments, there's no slacking off in their commitment to melody and groove. It's an album for both sides of the brain - the intellectual and visceral, the artistic and the mathematic. It's eclectic but reigned in, and it's the album that Keith have long had the potential to deliver. Vice & Virtue unites Keith with Dan Carey, the production wunderkind behind Franz Ferdinand's latest album. The band looked to Carey to help realize their idea for a darker, more psychedelic, more unified palette, and that's exactly what he did, through whip-smart editing, electronic flourishes and a newly invigorated sound. Lucky Number.