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Album review
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Keane - Under The Iron Sea
- Rating:
- Format: Album
- Label: Island
- Reviewed by John Lewis
- Posted: Mon Jun 5 2006
Where other anthemic MOR outfits like Snow Patrol, Starsailor, Embrace and Coldplay retain a sliver of leftfield kudos, Keane have always remained whipping boys for the cool indie kids. And, despite shifting 5.2 million copies of their debut album ‘Hopes And Fears’, this lack of indie credibility seems to rankle with the Hastings trio who, lest we forget, made their debut on the hip Fierce Panda imprint.
To this end, album number two sees them beef up their sound by plundering the Radiohead/U2 canon, something they are able to do with alarming efficiency. Stadium-sized stompers like ‘Crystal Ball’ or ‘Nothing In My Way’ could have come from ‘The Joshua Tree’; ‘Hamburg Song’ lifts its Ivor Cutler-ish harmonium from ‘Kid A’; while the spacey atmospherics of ‘A Bad Dream’ recall ‘Subterranean Homesick Alien’. Best of all is the ‘Achtung Baby’-scented ‘Is It Any Wonder?’, where Tim Rice-Oxley’s electric pianos have been mangled through a bank of effects pedals until they sound like The Edge, in his most Mogwai-admiring mode.
Keane’s lyrics are still bland, lovelorn doggerel about nothing in particular, but the musical pastiches are (whisper it) brilliantly done. It’s not a sequel, more an upgrade that renders ‘Hopes And Fears’ almost redundant.
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6 comments
I agree that Hope and Fears is a masterpiece. I haven't heard Under the iron sea, but I think what makes a great album is when you can listen to the whole album without skipping and Hopes and fears ticks all the boxes....
The distorted keyboard sound on the single is plain bad. No smirking irony; they are oblivious to it's cheapness. I had to turn off top of the pops.
The album genuinely is one that grows on you.
I didn't think that I liked it at first. But I played it (not loud) in my house and suddently --it was like -"Oh, I get it now!".
I find that mysterious, also.
Now it is my favorite album. Just give it time and you'll see...:) !
Fantastic. I've been listening to the new album all week and have to say it's a relief that it's just as good (if not better) than Hopes and Fears. Buy it!
I love "Under the Iron Sea"! And I just find that now I admire Keane a lot more, cause this new album is not for every listeners... "Hopes and Fears" is very good, this album is a true masterpiece. It is a risky move, but a thing is well done!
Keane is a band with extreme talent which perhaps ended being thier downfall for the release of Under The Iron Sea. Most of the tracks are overproduced and manages to weaken the heart and soul of certain tracks. After listening to the whole CD, there is a moment of perhaps there is something missing, like a bad ending to a really good movie. Perhaps including "Let It Slide" would of been a good move.
I am not sure why bands choose to move away from the blueprint that made them big in the first place, but for whatever the reason, it failed.
This album is not a bad album at all, but when compared to Hopes and Fears, it takes a back seat. Songs like "Hamburg Song" and "Try Again" are great songs but overproduced. The live versions of these songs were excellent and really hoped those "stripped down" versions would land on the album, no such luck.
With Hopes and Fears, I can pop in the CD, and listen to the whole album without skipping songs. With the second album, I end up skipping a few tracks 2, 4, 7, and 8. With Hopes and Fears, I'll listen to the whole CD all over again but louder. After listening to the second album, I'm looking for the new Snow Patrol album.
Some Keane fans will jump on the new album and claim it tops, but when the dust settles, songs like "She Has No Time", "We Might As Well Be Strangers", and "On A Day Like Today" will prove otherwise. I really hope Keane takes a break and figure out that simplicity rules over overproduction.
Yes, I am dissapointed with Under The Iron Sea, but least Hopes and Fears is a Masterpiece album that some bands never come close to achieving.