Often compared to countrymen Coldplay and Radiohead, the UK-based trio Keane plays a similarly majestic, sweeping blend of pop-informed rock music. Fueling the comparisons is the fact that lead vocalist Tom Chaplin makes heavy use of the same kind of Jeff Buckley-esque falsetto and emotion-filled wails favored by Chris Martin and Thom Yorke. On HOPES AND FEARS's epic tracks such as "She Has No Time," however, Keane takes the more dramatic elements of the aforementioned bands' sounds and magnifies them, creating piano- and synthesizer-driven cinematic soundscapes dripping with quiet heartache and existential angst. In addition, Keane incorporates minimalist trip-hop beats, which, in combination with Chaplin's strong pop melodies, evoke a male-led Portishead jamming with the Raspberries. One of the most sonically atmospheric groups of the Britpop scene, Keane ignores the notion of traditional guitar-based rock music in favor of something altogether quieter, yet equally as intense.
Track Listing:
Somewhere Only We Know
On a Day Like Today
Untitled 1
Bedshaped
Bend & Break
We Might as Well Be Strangers
Everybody's Changing
Your Eyes Open
She Has No Time
Can't Stop Now
Sunshine
This Is the Last Time