General Music Discussions - Keane

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Keane - Hopes And Fears

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Topic: Keane - Hopes And Fears

Posted By: Progbear
Subject: Keane - Hopes And Fears
Date Posted: October 26 2005 at 15:07

I don’t think I’ve seen this album discussed here.

I just discovered it and I’m digging it a whole lot. Mostly piano, bass and drums with some synths and some nicely emotive vocals. Very melodic latter-day pop music, with a lovely organic piano sound and synths adding a slight “techno”-ish edge to some pieces, giving it a bright modern feel. Some of this reminds me of Paul McCartney in his more somber moments (the singer sounds a bit McCartney-esque at times). And the heavy use of piano (actually a Yamaha CP-70, from the looks of the cover) made me think of the tragically underrated 90's band Suddenly Tammy, though these guys are definitely very English. More along the lines of Blue Nile, or perhaps some Prefab Sprout.

Curiously, I see a lot of people comparing them to Coldplay and Muse. I'm sorry, but I just don’t hear it. They seem to have little or nothing to do with the Coldplay/Muse axis of “inferior Radiohead-lite”, at least to my ears.

Anyone else dig this album?

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Replies:

Posted By: Citanul
Date Posted: October 27 2005 at 03:22

I like this album. I think it was a brave move by the band not to have a guitarist, but it ended up paying off for them. I'd like to see them branch out a bit more - there were one or two tracks on the album that had keyboard solos, and while I'm not suggesting they become the next ELP, some extended songs would be nice.

I think the Coldplay comparison comes from the fact that Coldplay had a hit (I think it was Clocks) that was almost completely piano based. Piano does play a big role in other Coldplay songs, so there are some similarities from that respect, but overall I think they sound very different, and I don't hear any resemblence to Muse in Keane's work.

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Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: October 27 2005 at 08:24

They are absolutley nothing like Muse! Closer to Coldplay perhaps.

Keane are very young and are quite talented musicians, but many of their songs are quite whiney, whingy and irritating for me.

Citanul, I have often made an idle comparison to ELP. Apart from the fact that there's three of them, and no guitarist I cant really think why I made the comparison, but it occured to me they did have the potential to write more ambitious music than they do. Perhaps some of their ballad type songs made me think of Greg Lakes contribution to ELP. They do need to elaborate on what they currently do to get a full thumbs up from me, though.

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Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy!

Posted By: yargh
Date Posted: October 28 2005 at 21:52

I first heard them opening for U2. Sorry -- they sound to me like a band whose heard entirely too much Coldplay (and more than five minutes is enough Coldplay for me).

Posted By: kenmeyerjr
Date Posted: November 05 2005 at 19:57

Funny, I used to love Coldplay, based on the first album....and lately, don't really listen much. I do like the first Keane release, though...and they, like Travis, so seem sort of like Coldplay to me (not nearly as much as some band called Blue Merle, though...they are so close to Coldplay, it seems like an obvious ripoff).

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Posted By: Dragon Phoenix
Date Posted: November 07 2005 at 05:41

Excellent band based on their first album, highly melodic work. One of my favourite albums of the last few years.

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