Keane Review

Published in this week's Lumberjack.


British pop band Keane have evolved from album to album. Their debut Hopes and Fears used only piano, drums and occasional bass. Their second LP, Under the Iron Sea added guitar riffs, organs and effects pedals. Their newest album, Perfect Symmetry finds the band tossing in annoying synth sounds and monotonous background vocals. Once past that, it's pretty much the same-old, same-old you expect from the trio, which is a relieving and good kind of familiar.

Keane's Under the Iron Sea was an attempt at a concept album, but the scattered notions didn't really stick with the diverse pallet of songs. Perfect Symmetry seems to present a better underlying theme with almost every song about drowning or swimming in wreckage, which are metaphors for the human condition and romantic relationships. Basically they're just echoing the lyrics from Radiohead's "Pyramid Song "I shake through the wreckage for signs of life," sings lead singer Thomas Chaplin. "I dreamed I was drowning in the river Thames; I dreamed I had nothing at all." If any progress Keane has made is good, it has to be the lyrical content.

The first track is a tune called "Spiraling" that at first sounds as if the disc was microwaved. Each chord warbles between the backup vocals, which sound like Alvin, and the Chipmunks. This is their attempt at being original, and while irritating at first, the song quickly fades into familiar territory. This antagonizing sound is patterned throughout the album, crowding out the actually decent tracks such as "The Lovers are Losing" and the album's title track "Perfect Symmetry.”

Other notable tracks include "You Don't See Me" and "Black Burning Heart,” songs that retain the minimalism that made Keane good in their early days. Unfortunately, Symmetry is too unbalanced to maintain Keane’s former decency.