After 5 years of false begins and struggles, Keane’s fortunes rotated dramatically when their 2004 debut Hopes And Fears topped the U.Okay charts and launched the band to stardom. Nonetheless, this preliminary triumph quickly turned to turmoil because the British trio started work on its sophomore set Underneath The Iron Sea.
“We weren’t having the time of our lives,” vocalist Tim Chaplin confessed in a 2020 YouTube retrospective. “It was a difficult period. I was having a lot of problems adjusting to life in the spotlight. Having thought it would be the answer to all my problems, all fame did was actually shine a light on them. Also, our relationship as a band was strained and you can hear that in the songs. [Under The Iron Sea] was a much darker, introspective record.”
Hearken to Keane’s Underneath The Iron Sea now.
Underneath stress to supply new materials following the world tour in assist of Hopes And Fears, Keane did no less than have a stockpile of latest songs to fall again on. To his credit score, keyboardist and first songsmith Rice-Oxley additionally knew Keane couldn’t play it secure and make a second Hopes And Fears. Accordingly, he made a concerted effort to increase on the band’s signature sound by including an outdated, barely distorted electrical piano to his battery of keyboards and produced contemporary sonic textures by way of experiments together with placing synths by way of classic guitar results pedals.
Prematurely PR for Underneath The Iron Sea, the band recommended that they had been writing, singing, and performing with a brand new “drive, intensity, and fury,” and that was largely borne out by the contents of the file. Tracks such because the chilly, Radiohead-esque first single “Atlantic” and the instrumental title observe had been brooding, filmic affairs, whereas extra linear, rock-based numbers corresponding to “Leaving So Soon?,” and the U2-ish “Put It Behind You” had been notably extra muscular in design than something Keane had launched earlier than. Sensibly, although, the band stopped wanting throwing the newborn out with the bathwater. Certainly, the likes of “Crystal Ball,” “Nothing In My Way,” and the wonderful, hymnal “Hamburg Song” had been all classic Keane songs, all coming throughout like logical successors to Hopes And Fears’ highlights.
In most respects, although, Keane’s need to take dangers paid dividends. Underneath The Iron Sea moved round three million copies worldwide, topped the U.Okay. charts and went Prime 5 on North America’s Billboard 200. It additionally attracted a number of wonderful evaluations, not least the Irish Instances’ enthusiastic missive which cogently noticed that “there is much in the themes of emptiness and self-doubt to suggest a band well beyond post-pubescent choirboys. Difficult second album? No way. A dark and surprising return.”
“The first album was quite romantic and also pretty sparse, whereas [Under The Iron Sea] was super dark, layered and soundscape-y,” Tim Rice-Oxley stated, reflecting on this underrated album in 2020. “At the time, it was difficult being involved in it, but it was a record that was a real contrast from the first one. In the long run, it was good for us to have done something different.”
Hearken to Keane’s Underneath The Iron Sea now.
