The keane strangeland
Consistency at this level owes more than to formula alone, though. The NME has noted a radical difference between the singles and album charts in 2012.īut Keane’s flawless chart success, which reviewers of Strangeland have largely ignored, shows that their formula does have purchase. There are many artists who survive with an ongoing hope that relevance can somehow bend to suit them. Staying ‘relevant’ is a nightmare – true enough. Since when did danger ever become a prerequisite? Why have risk and radicalism become the defining criteria for critical predisposition? And this is where the reviewers’ curse comes in. The conclusion: that safe is too often weak. The underlying mentality, then, is one that awards more kudos for anything that attempts to be ‘different’, even if the result apparently fails, than one that aims to satisfy through the tried-and-tested. Mature, with gripping rock dynamics, it befits the closure of an EP that’s defined by looking backwards – a band sighting the end of its own detour.Īnd yet, critics now find middle-ground with Strangeland, responding nonchalantly to the band’s ‘return-to-signature’ sound.
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The closing track, ‘My Shadow’, is possibly the most striking single opportunity since the band’s early 2004 successes. The greatest departure, really, is the indie pageant, with ‘Clear Skies’ leaning towards the Gorillaz, and both ‘Ishin Denshin’ and ‘Your Love’ casting a pleasing glance to the late 1980s indie/pop intersect.īut traditional Keane is never left behind. ‘Back in Time’ sets a similarly eclectic opening tone, while smooth collaborations with K’naan mark what would appear to be the most distinct genre shift. Night Train has a more ambitious scope of influence in its shorter span. In other words, it’s a small proportion of the album that spearheads the alleged revolution.
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But the title track keeps the classic piano-rock pulse in close embrace, while the pleading ballad ‘You Don’t See Me’, panned by critics, forms a sumptuous companion piece for the haunting ‘She Has No Time’ from the first Hopes and Fears album. But was it really such a major refashioning? The whole ‘dipping in and out of form’ idea is often rather vacuous – especially when chart positions don’t suggest a major collapse.Ĭertainly, ‘Spiralling’ is the radical lurch of Perfect Symmetry (2008), with its coarser synth-riffs and more unusual electronic slants. One reviewer described Night Train as a ‘stench’ that Strangeland only partly disperses. To others, it added an edge and eclecticism to an otherwise characterless plateau. To some, it was a ghastly move – over-experimental and over-tainted by the conceptual leanings of Muse and Radiohead. Mainstream fans were aghast, but held on, as if odium were the only thing more pleasurable than departure.Īnd critical reception of Keane also wavered disproportionately around this lateral shift. Moderating the Scissor Sisters’ more gregarious lead, Keane’s Perfect Symmetry joined The Killers in a revisionist 80s revival in 2008, with Night Train following two years later. Keane swung into new territory following two highly successful early albums. Strangeland never really lives up to its mysterious title, as there's nothing on it that doesn’t feel willfully nostalgic, but like any good plate of comfort food (for those with larger appetites, there's a 16-track extended version, and a 24-track CD/DVD combo) it satisfies in a way that more adventurous meals never truly can.Should Keane top the charts with Strangeland later today, they will follow Coldplay (and another of my dear charges, Erasure) into an exclusive list of British bands to have achieved a fifth consecutive number one album. More contemplative moments, like the lilting "Black Rain," the lovely "Neon River," and the appropriately epic closer "Sea Fog" work just as well, dialing back the cymbal swells in favor of a more measured level of melodrama. Bolstered by a pair of stadium-ready singles in "Disconnected" and "Silence by the Night," both of which occur (in classic LP fashion) early on, Strangeland works best when it sticks to the formula, providing a hook, a line, and a sinker before landing the listener with the kind of colossal chorus that results in the frantic rolling up or down of car windows. Closer in tone to 2006's Under the Iron Sea, some may find Strangeland's reliable mix of Coldplay, Snow Patrol, and "Sit Down"-era James to be a bit rote, but when it comes to crafting relatively safe, achingly melodic, and terminally sincere adult alternative rock songs, there are few groups as prodigious as the East Sussex quartet. Keane's fourth outing trades in the officious electro-pop flourishes that peppered 2008's Perfect Symmetry for a more familiar approach.