Album Review: Keane - Strangeland

Utterly Uninspired and Unremarkable Piano Pop Pleasantries

Nawwwww, look, it's kinda pretty and stuff!

It recently hit me that due to my fully-blown neglect for this blog, I'd missed out on reviewing several albums released during the memory that is 2012, that I was quite interested in. Christ, that's an awful sentence. First up is Keane's Strangeland, which is most likely being tackled before anything else for the sheer fact that I have so very little to say about it. It's Keane. I mean, really, it's Keane. Very Keane. Make of that what you will. For me, that means it's yet another perfectly listenable record - there's no(t much of a) doubt about that - lackingwhat you may call a certain spark, and in dire need of some musical variation. 2008's Perfect Symmetry - their last proper record - was a small step in the right direction. Well, not necessarily, but a step in ANY direction would be the right one when your music's getting so stale at such pace. Strangeland sees Keane revert to what they've always been doing though. You'll hear the same chords and keys over and over again, with very few of the tracks offering anything even moderately interesting. Trust me, it's about as imaginative as a potato flavoured crisp. The album's two main singles - Silenced By The Night and Sovereign Light Café - are pretty decent, but aren't a patch on the catchiness of earlier singles such as the borderline classic Everybody's Changing. I'm not sure whether this is simply because it's all been done by them before, or if in actual fact they are actually inferior tunes. The album doesn't really have any particular low points as such, and it's certainly not musically bad...but it's just safe; oh so very safe. Tom Chaplin and co. have stuck to what they know, which is perfectly understandable from their point of view, but something that just has to be criticised in a band which has been (sort of) in the limelight for over 8 years now. I don't think it's asking too much to expect some sort of progression, but there's just none at all to be found here. The Beatlesy and Coldplayish elements are still to be found, but both bands do their own thing better. As you can probably tell, I really do have very little to specifically say about this album. I should probably warn you that if you listen to Strangeland as backing music, there's a very good chance indeed that you won't notice when the tracks are starting and finishing. More importantly, you must be warned about the piano. It's everywhere. If you know what Keane are all about, then you'd have probably guessed this by now anyway, but bloody hell was I sick of it come the end of the album. Somebody needs to invest in some fresh instrumentation. Merely a different sounding piano would suffice...although plentiful use of cowbell would be nice...or how about a didgeridoo? Honestly, on a couple of Strangeland's songs I'd genuinely rather hear a dwarf sneeze than listen to any more plinking and plonking. I'd better briefly summarise... 

If you like Keane, you'll like this. If you don't, you definitely won't. Yawn.

4/10