The first three tracks of Strangeland bleed into each other, sounding more or less the same, thanks to their formulaic structure. Keane wants to make you feel like everything is going to be okay, but it mostly feels exhausting. The album’s lead single, “Silenced By the Night” follows- another mid-tempo, anthemic track, which has Chaplin singing lyrics like “If I am a river/you are the ocean.” There’s a lot going on: the bright, twinkling piano, solid drumbeat, and synth chords are accompanied by yet another booming chorus, assuring the listener, “You and I, we’re gonna rise again.” The problem isn’t that Keane produced a song about embracing the uncertainties of youth-it’s that they had to hammer us over the head with the message again and again. In a post explaining the process behind “You Are Young” on the band’s website, Rice-Oxley writes that they had spent hours cutting and chopping up the song, trying to “make it snappier and less ponderous”-but what if they hadn’t? A little “ponderous” might have helped the track resonate. “You’re shielded by the hands of love,” Chaplin tries to convince the listener. “Nothing is given/Except the ties that hold us together/Lay down your load/’Cause every day it’s gonna grow.” The song is an ode to carefree youth, naïveté and childish innocence. “Fearful child, have faith in brighter days/Stay until this darkness fades away,” Chaplin starts.

“You are Young,” the album’s opening track, wastes no time getting into U2-level soaring vocals, with big, bold piano melodies leading the way into a recitation of Hallmark-worthy words of encouragement. However, the sweeping, bombastic arrangements and the often repetitive, clichéd lyrics prevent the album from being truly enjoyable, let alone memorable.

Then again, neither are most of music’s most affecting songs. The messages in Strangeland are sweet and simple: the album is about friendship and loyalty, dashed dreams and renewed faith, familiar streets once walked hand-in-hand with a lover, only to seem strange and distant after the fallout-these aren’t unique revelations. Tim Rice-Oxley (pianist, principal composer and songwriter) never realizes that some restraint would go a long way for the group. Rather, there’s just far too much happening all at once, leaving the listener overwhelmed. It’s not that lead singer Tom Chaplin isn’t a capable and skilled vocalist, or that-when isolated-the piano melodies aren’t beautiful and uplifting. ( MORE: Do I Hate Coldplay? Or Just Think I Do?) Strangeland, Keane’s fourth studio album, is a throwback to their earlier style. Unfortunately, this period of exploration appears to have been short-lived. It was a refreshing move from a band so synonymous with brooding and often whiny tracks. The albumallowed the band to gain some respect with critics for actually trying something interesting-they experimented with electronic blips and beats, dipping their toe in Radiohead’s waters (though more often sounding inspired by Tears for Fears or Bowie), and took on more adventurous arrangements. But 2008’s Perfect Symmetrywas bold in its deviation from the familiar, booming choral arrangements that first brought the British pop-rockers’ success. Until that time, they’d been endlessly corralled with Coldplay and Snow Patrol, bands also known for their emotionally exploitative production.

There's something weird about that feeling of being on a train really really late at night when there's just a handful of you there, and I always wonder what everyone's story is – especially people who've been to work and probably got up at some horrendous hour of the morning, and they're traipsing back to their home somewhere in the suburbs.Follow years ago, it seemed liked Keane was finally evolving. I always think about it as being a commuter's love song. Rice-Oxley explains his thoughts about 'Try Again' on the fifth Keane podcast: The song was recorded and at the Heliosentric Studios, Rye, East Sussex and at The Magic Shop, New York City in late 2005. Chaplin apparently wanted Wainwright to also play the piano but he refused. Rufus Wainwright was asked by Keane to sing this song along with Chaplin at the Wireless Music Festival on 29 June 2005. In the extended outro, distortion piano notes can also be heard from lead singer Tom Chaplin's Yamaha CP60M. The album version is a melancholic piano ballad, featuring drums, synthesizers, an extended outro, along with Rice-Oxley's electric piano.

The song was first played with the electric piano and a tambourine as very much a work-in-progress, and as a result was shorter than the recorded version. It was composed by Tim Rice-Oxley in early 2005, and first played live two weeks after composed by Rice-Oxley.

The keane strangeland