Keane - Under the iron sea

Track listing:
1. Atlantic
2. Is It Any Wonder?
3. Nothing in My Way
4. Leaving So Soon
5. Bad Dream
6. Hamburg Song
7. Put It Behind You
8. Crystal Ball
9. Try Again
10. Broken Toy
11. Frog Prince

I hesitated downloading this album for a while, mainly because i've heard the singles and thought they were dreadfully bland. Also, in my opinion, a debut album is a pretty good indication of a bands creative power. Hopes and fears was good, it had two incredible singles, Somewhere only we know and Everybody's changing, but apart from those two fantastic songs you had to really search for a good tune in the rest of the album. Sure the piano parts were beautiful, but they have a really hard time recording a song that will blow you away in it's entirety. And it's the same story with UTIS. On the first listen one or two standout tracks, Crystal ball and Nothing in my way. The problem is that in order to make a standout track, the chorus has to be pretty special. Apart from those two songs, they do just the opposite, the write pretty preludes and bland choruses. The effect they produce? A song you'll soon forget, or will learn to tolerate upon multiple listens as a decent interlude to the standout tracks.

It seems to me that they have the creative process all wrong, like the piano dude ( who is incredibly talented by the way, he seems to splurt out beautiful melodies with the most painful of ease ) fiddles about with some tunes and the lead singer just sings randomly, tries to fish for some catchy tune but fails miserably...well, most of the time anyways...

Unlike Coldplay, who i consider their closest contemporaries and whose albums keep getting better and the sound ever evolving, Keane unfortunately seems to be on a downward spiral as far as their creativity goes...or if i'm to be generous, they're stuck on the same level for a while now ( which is essentially the same thing ). Unfortunate indeed...
However, they have done something pretty special with this album, most of the melodies really do give out an incredible sensation of standing on some deserted english beach in the middle of winter. A wonderful visual effect if nothing else.

Don't get me wrong, i think it's a decent album, a good listen, with some outstanding moments, I'll probably even buy it.But i expect more from them, if only because i refuse to admit that a band that has written Somewhere only we know and Everybody's changing has in doing so tapped out all the musical magic they had. I suppose i'll just have to wait for that 5 star album a while longer....if it ever comes .

3.5/5

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