Music Notes: Keane, Under The Iron Sea

July 17th, 2006

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Music I really like this album. 1/2 Radiohead, 1/4 U2, 1/4 Coldplay, and the rest a bit of the Smiths or the Sundays or whatever other mopey, sensitive British band you can name. If you hate the first two bands, don’t bother. It shows what can be done with above average musicianship and a sensitive vocalist. There’s a lot of range in styles, forms, and rhythm, even if the general feeling is a bit down-tempo.

Some brilliant moments: a melody in Leaving So Soon? that recalls the Beatles’ Not A Second Time, the chorus of Crysal Ball that contrasts amazingly with the verse.

I’ll have to say a few moments like Broken Toy ape Radiohead a bit too much for me, but they don’t come too often. The sound is a more commercially accesible Radiohead minus the lyrical blahness of Coldplay.

Each track had something of value to me, and it only peters out at the last two. I’ll be listening to this one again.