Keane’s third album, Good Symmetry rewarded the band with its third consecutive U.Ok. chart-topper and a High 10 inserting within the U.S. But the document’s success was a blended blessing for the British trio, who felt its sound was outlined by its manufacturing slightly than the standard of its songs. For album quantity 4, Strangeland, Keane determined the fabric itself could be the precedence.
“We talked a lot about the sound and ambition of the record beforehand…about going back to the songwriting of their first two albums, Hopes And Fears and Under The Iron Sea,” producer Dan Grech-Marguerat instructed Billboard when Strangeland was launched in Could 2012. “We wanted to make a record that sounded rich and simpler.”
Hearken to Keane’s Strangeland now.
Keane attached with Grech-Marguerat after having fun with his manufacturing work for Radiohead, Howling Bells, and The Vaccines. His methodology chimed with Keane’s major tunesmiths, vocalist Tom Chaplin and keyboard participant Tim Rice-Oxley, who instructed CBSNews.com that getting the perfect from Strangeland concerned “thinking just about the music rather than any other possible influencing factors.”
Accordingly, Keane eschewed the synths, beats, and experimental textures of Good Symmetry and went again to doing what they did greatest – writing melancholic, but uplifting, keyboard-driven pop songs with a common enchantment. Sonically, the band was given an additional enhance with the full-time addition of bassist Jesse Quin, whereas Grech-Marguerat’s widescreen manufacturing imbued Strangeland’s music with a new-found depth and readability.
In actual fact, it’s a testomony to all involved that just about all the album’s 12 tracks might have been singles. The exhilarating “Silenced By The Night,” anthemic “Disconnected,” and “Sovereign Light Café” (a craving paean to a favourite diner of the band’s located on their native south coast of England) had been chosen to symbolize Strangeland, however they had been surrounded by equally spectacular cuts. Certainly, “Watch How You Go,” the U2-esque exultation of “You Are Young,” and the hymnal “Black Rain” are among the many perfect of Keane’s canon.
Critiques of Strangeland had been largely constructive, with The Guardian suggesting that “what Keane perfect in these stadium-swelling anthems is the meticulous, yet ineffable melodic progression that goes straight for the emotional reflex.” This proved to be the case: The album’s broad, radio-friendly enchantment resulted in Strangeland offering Keane one other U.S. High 20 inserting and its fourth consecutive U.Ok. No. 1 album success. This time, too, the band was proud of the fruit of its labor.
“[Strangeland] is a very emotional album,” Rice-Oxley instructed NME. “The title track is about setting off on a certain path in life and thinking it’s going to go one way, but finding out life’s taken a detour. Pretty much every song is about that, but it’s a more hopeful record than it might sound.”
Hearken to Keane’s Strangeland now.
