Keane Split

Reports have surfaced that Keane will split after the release of their greatest hits album in November. The band have cited the reason being that they want to work on their solo projects. They released four albums (and a mini-album) - Hopes And Fears (2004), Under The Iron Sea (2006), Perfect Symmetry (2008), Night Train (the mini album, 2010), and (in my opinion) their masterpiece, Strangeland (2012).

Keane Releasing New Single

Keane will be releasing a new single, Higher Than The Sun, to accompany their new greatest hits collection. The song will get its premiere on Radio 2 on Friday morning. The greatest hits collection will be released on November 12th, and will include another new song, Won't Be Broken, in addition to the new single.

Best Of 2012: #5

#5 - Keane - Strangeland

For their fifth album (I kind of consider Night Train to be their fourth), the band have gone back to their original sounds, after experimenting a little on Perfect Symmetry and a LOT on Night Train. But this time, they have experience of what makes a massive pop song. And therefore, we have twelve massive pop songs, filled with melody, led on by Tom Chaplin's powerful voice and Tim Rice-Oxley's brilliant songwriting. There are some clear singles, particularly on the first half of the album, with Silenced By The Night sounding like it could have come straight off their debut album, or Sovereign Light Café, which is a nice slice of nostalgia for the band, and results in their greatest song ever, and On The Road, which is immensely catchy. The second half of the album deals more in being a bit more varied, from Black Rain's ethereal, haunting sounds, through to epics Neon River and In Your Own Time, finally ending up at gorgeous piano-heavy closer Sea Fog (the 'oooh's that close the entire album are real goosebumps moments). So, although the experimentation has gone down a bit, the band are back to their roots, and they're back in force. Definitely their best work yet.

RECOMMEND: Sovereign Light Café, Neon River, In Your Own Time
LOW POINTS: Watch How You Go, The Starting Line

Preview Strangeland

You can now preview 90-second clips of Keane's new album Strangeland, due for release on 7th April, if you are in the UK, right here.

The band have also revealed the video for their new single Disconnected, which is track 3 on the album. Have a look here.

Keane Unveil New Single

Keane have revealed their new single Silenced By The Night today. The single is the first one to be taken from their upcoming fourth album (fifth if you count Night Train as an album, which I do, even if it's more of a mini-album) which is entitled Strangeland. The album will be released 7th May.

Have a listen to Silenced By The Night here.

Keane - Strangeland

Artwork

















Tracklist
01. You Are Young
02. Silenced By The Night
03. Disconnected
04. Watch How You Go
05. Sovereign Light Café
06. On The Road
07. The Starting Line
08. Black Rain
09. Neon River
10. Day Will Come
11. In Your Own Time
12. Sea Fog

The album will be released May 7th.

The first single in the UK will be Silenced By The Night. A release date for this is unknown.

Best Of 2010 - #22

Keane - Night Train EP



Not technically an album, but I think eight songs can be counted as a mini-album, and as it got to Number 1 in the UK album charts, I'm counting it. However, it's definitely not their best work. I loved three (Stop For A Minute, Your Love and My Shadow), liked two (Back In Time and Looking Back), wasn't interested in two (House Lights - which to be fair, isn't a proper song - and Clear Skies) but absolutely hated their cover of Ishin Denshin.

It is definitely an experimental EP, with rapper K'Naan featuring on two tracks, a cover of a Japanese pop song, Tim Rice-Oxley taking lead vocal (on the best song of the EP, I might add), and part of the Rocky theme tune making its way into a song. To be honest, the only song that is very much a Keane song is closer My Shadow, which is a brilliant song left over from the Perfect Symmetry era.

Overall, maybe it was best for the band to get this sort of experimenting out of their systems, but this album/EP/whatever you want to call it isn't particularly interesting.

SCORE


Previous albums: Hopes And Fears (7/10), Under The Iron Sea (7/10), Perfect Symmetry (9/10)

Best Of 2008 (#10-#6)

10. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement


I knew this would be good as soon as I heard The Age Of The Understatement, the wonderful title track which opens this album. Almost every song is good or even better, but other than the fact that one or two don't interest me personally, I cannot think of any bad things to say. Brilliant.
SCORE: 8/10


9. The Pigeon Detectives - Emergency

The fantastic Wait For Me, their debut, was released less than a year before this one. All the songs are great Pigeon Detectives songs, but in some places it sounds a bit rushed. Nevertheless, the songs are all excellent. Highlights include This Is An Emergency, Keep On Your Dress, Say It Like You Mean It and the closer Everybody Wants Me.
SCORE: 8/10



8. Ladytron - Velocifero

After getting into this band, after hearing their third album, Witching Hour, I was sure that this one would be even better. Although I think that it's not, it's still a brilliant album. Black Cat sets the pace for the album and it never lets up. Ghosts follows it, an incredibly catchy song that made me want to listen again and again. But I think that it's not a huge improvement on Witching Hour, and I would have given that one 8/10. So:
SCORE: 8/10


7. Keane - Perfect Symmetry

This album is by far their best. The eighties sound on opening track Spiralling really gets me going, and then great songs such as Better Than This, the beautiful Perfect Symmetry or Black Burning Heart makes this well worth a listen.
SCORE: 9/10


6. One Night Only - Started A Fire

A great debut. Although most of the songs sound too much the same, they are all great. An odd one is Sweet Sugar, where George Craig mumbles on about the chemical formula for glucose in describing his lover. Seriously, why? (It's still a good song, it's just odd.) Also, what's with the three minutes of keyboard sounds at the end of Hide? These oddities aside, the album is still fantastic.

SCORE: 9/10